If you have a substantial amount of basil, I recommend making up a big batch of pesto and then freezing it in an ice cube tray (once it's frozen, bag up the cubes). Now you have pesto in individual serving sizes, just thaw it in the microwave and go.

Can't help with sewing at all though. I know how to thread a normal needle (you rub the eye of the needle over the thread until it pushes up through, it's kind of the reverse of how vibration straightens out knots, is the only way I know how to describe it). With a sewing machine you have to sort of wend the thread through the machine from the top and then down into the needle itself, and then there's a separate thing underneath. Before I quit social media I saw a gif that really helped me understand how the thing actually worked, and it's here: https://gifsofprocesses.tumblr.com/post/173543017178/how-the-bobbin-of-a-sewing-machine-works

Going to keep commenting to encourage you to keep blogging, and maybe at some point prompt me to start blogging again myself.