hello, i'm visiting from the kitchen and home building forums. our house is almost complete and i need very simple draperies: working roman shades and pinch pleat drapes. i was forced to take home ec as a child in the sixth grade, my first year of middle school in 1974. i was royally pi$$ed off about this since they divided us by sex. the boys went to wood shop, the girls ...you get it. the class was broken up into two parts: 1/2 of the year we learned "cooking" which basically covered making items such as jell-o molds and rice krispie treats. the second half covered "sewing' -where my (female) peers and i constructed simple gingham drawstring bags, embroidered with our initials. i hated the stupid bag since i was forced to use gingham. anyway, i did at least learn to thread a machine, although i despised having anything to do with that darned bobbin.

fast forward many decades and i arrive at a place where i would actually like to be able to sew something. i need a machine, so i was going to look into purchasing a husqvarna emerald 116. i want to be able to easily make button holes, which i understand this machine does. two of my friends have them and highly recommend.

my real question is: with a little practice and much-improved attitude, do you suppose i might be successful in constructing simple romans and pinch pleat drapes? -i know there are tapes available which would make the headers on the drapes pretty easy. i figure, i can cut and thread a machine and measure accurately. i should be able to do this, right?