Misadventures with a sewing machine and a favourite blankie

One of the things about being a parent is that you end up with an almost prescient sense of when something will go wrong... it's freaky really.

Take for example.
On Saturday, I told Olivia not to take one of her favourite blankies (we bought it in Mumbai just after the girls were born) onto their seesaw and I explained why.  It could get tangled and ripped, not to mention that it could cause an accident and someone could get hurt (the seesaw also spins around).  So come Sunday... what happens?  Blankie gets caught and rips.  It's almost quite literally the end of the world (hell I nearly cried when I had to throw my favourite pair of jeans) so I promised Olivia that I would fix it for her - isn't that what your parents are supposed to do?  Now I should have realised that this would potentially be a challenge for me.

Why?
I can't sew.  I really can't.
  
When I did home economics in high school we were supposed to make a pair of shorts.  I cheated.  I had someone make them for me.  I only sewed the elastic for the waistband.  I hated the sewing components of home ec - the cooking I loved (duh!).

So coming from a history of complete incompetence when it comes to sewing - I decided to buy a sewing machine probably about 2 years ago with the great intention of building a fabric cubby for the girls.  It took me about 6 months to learn how to put the bobbin in (if you asked me to do it now - I probably would still have no idea - I will only sew things that require white thread until the bobbin runs out) and pretty much pulled the bottom half of the sewing machine apart.  So basically for about 2 years the sewing machine has sat in a cupboard gathering dust (with the bobbin in).

I had to do something about the blankie situation and I did promise Olivia I would.  So here was my personal crisis.  I can't sew.  Child needs favourite something fixed.  Solution "suck it up princess" and just try to do it.  It took me until today to actually build up the chutzpah to do it - but I did it.  Badly but I did do it... I now have a happy child and I have a somewhat mixed sense of accomplishment.

At the end of the day - it's not about whether I can sew or not.  It's about making my children happy and that I did accomplish.