Saturday 8 September 2012

My limitations are very frustrating ...

My limitations are very frustrating! 
 
After tossing out the old manky curtains in Hermie (I promise this post isn’t yet another one about him) I automatically assumed that I’d be able to just whip up some kinda window covering concoction. This sadly is not the case!
 I bought a nice pair of un-lined second hand curtains for £3.00 with the intention of transforming one of them into a lined internal curtain to draw alongside the bunk beds when the kids are tucked up of an evening so as they feel like they have privacy in their own little space.  I cannot convey on to a blog post how attempting to do this created such utter frustration and the aftermath of trying to sew this one simple thing has left me never wanting to sew ever, ever, never, ever again ~ ever!
I have no training at all in sewing, I was utterly useless at it in school and steered clear at all costs, I was more of a drawing, calligraphy, pottery kinda girl. When my mother in law was unfortunately unable to use her sewing machine anymore I was asked to take on the role of taking up her trousers (she’s only widdy) and her beloved trusty sewing machine came over to our house.  I was scared stiff of it and just stared it at not knowing anything at all. I kept putting off using it and put it out of sight out of mind until my husband said exasperated that his Mum (who by now was in a home for Dementia suffers) didn’t have a single pair of trousers that fit. I altered them all by hand and booked myself on a ‘getting to know your sewing machine’ course. This proved invaluable in teaching me the basics of how my/our sewing machine worked, how to thread it up, wind a bobbin, alter the tension, change stitches etc. and it did my confidence the world of good.
This said I still have absolutely no idea how to create things with my new found sewing machine skills knowledge. I feel I bodge about trying to follow instructions on the web and in books and, being a perfectionist, nothing I make comes up to scratch.
So … back to internal Hermie curtain.  When I got my £3.00 pair home they were not long enough or wide enough ~ grrr.  I chopped fabric off of one to sew onto the other to make it fit plus lined it.  This, let me tell you, sounds oh so easy when condensed into a short sentence ~ there has been nothing easy about it at all and I have sewn, un-picked, pinned, un-pinned, blah, blah, blah until the cows came home, several times over. The end result is a bodged curtain that I can’t bear to look at, not only because it’s a damn mess but also it just reminds me of hours upon un-necessary hours spent trying to feel my way in the dark and fathom out how to make something that I have no experience in. 
I would rather do anything than try to make four more pairs to replace the ones that had to be removed, my heart sinks at the very thought ~ in fact it sinks at the thought of attempting anything ever again in the sewing department.  Let’s hope my mother in law isn’t in need of trousers making widdy any time soon, I hear skirts are all the rage now a ’days!