Sew What?

My mother and sister are amazing seamstresses. There's pretty much no limit to what they can sew: clothing, home decor, etc. I on the other hand suck at sewing. But I want to master it. At least for simple things like pillows, small bags, skirts.

I've purchased a couple of sewing books and just ordered a couple more but I've decided to work on a Box Bag for my first project. Dragoknitfly offers a great tutorial but I swear I am severely sewing challenged. First, I can't cut straight to save my life. And along the same lines, I can't stitch straight either. Very frustrating.
I have some beautiful fabrics from Purlsoho.com and I'd really like to make a bunch of these little project bags to accommodate my knitting startitis. I've reached a point in the tutorial that just doesn't make sense to me and I've had to rip out the stitches and re-sew a couple of times already. I gave up for now and put it aside. I will go back to it in a few days.