Intro

Last year I split from my husband. I took our kids and moved into a 25+ year old house that had hideous 80s pink curtains. Those curtains had to go, but curtains are expensive and my bank balance couldn't afford them. I ended up finding amazing curtains in Costco. They were just what I wanted - natural colours, 100% blockout, and a really good price. Of course they ended up being a nightmare. They hung with tiny hooks that kept falling off the rail, they were way too long, and I couldn't get the gathering even which drove me nuts. There was nothing for it but to find the sewing machine I'd bought back in '09 (which had only seen the light of day once when my mother borrow it) and fix the damn things. 

I had no idea how to sew, but those curtains weren't going to beat me. Maybe they'll hang better after they've been shortened? So I shortened them. Twice. I broke a needle (I didn't even know that could happen), and my cheap thread broke several times. They still didn't hang right. So I bought some pleating hook tape, attached it, and inserted all the new long hooks. I hung them again...and I swear I heard angels start to sing. It worked. They hung like real, well-behaved curtains. And I did it all by myself with my sewing machine.

As much of a pain in the arse as those curtains were, they were a blessing in disguise. I'd done a bit if sewing in high school but never liked it much, and only bought a machine a few years ago at my mother's bidding ("You'll be able to fix things yourself instead of waiting for me to do it."). But I never really had the confidence to use it. If the stitching isn't perfectly straight it will be crap. If I know I can't do things "perfectly" I'm reluctant to try. Fixing the curtains made me realise sewing wasn't that hard, and it didn't really matter if the stitching wasn't "perfect" because no one was going to look that close. And suddenly, I really wanted to sew.

I started reading online tutorials and saving all the wonderful things I wanted to make to Pinterest. I bought sewing paraphernalia - self-healing mat, rulers, rotary cutter, good-quality threads, quilt wadding, needles, ribbons, hoops, clips, scissors, stuffing, lots and lots of fabric - and embarked on the long journey of teaching myself to sew.

I don't get to sew very often: I have two young children (Child 1, who is in her second year of primary school, and Child 2, who is in his second year of life) and concentration can be hard when they are around. As I don't have a permanent sewing space, sewing involves taking over the dining table and much of the adjacent kitchen bench. I could do it at night when they are in bed, but all I tend to achieve after 7:30 at night is a lot of mistakes. So my fleeting moments of sewing are restricted to a couple of days a month - a Sunday here, a Saturday there; the kids stay with the dad on weekends, but I also go to work then, too. It's not a lot of time, but I love every minute of it (except when I'm jabbing myself with pins...that part sucks).

So that is why I decided to start a blog. To muse about what I would like to make, and to document what I do make. I read a few sewing blogs and the women who write them are just amazing; I want my work to be like their's. My work isn't amazing, my life isn't exciting or interesting, and I literally have no social life. I often have trouble stringing a simple sentence together and probably no one will ever read this. But maybe by writing this blog, I can help myself - intellectually, creatively, socially - to grow. Maybe.