AITJ for not remaking a handmade gift after she called it "almost normal"?
I am a guy, and I make handmade gifts sometimes for people I am actually close with. Mostly because I like making things with my hands, and also because if I buy something nice I will overthink it for three days and still feel weird about it. A friend of mine had a birthday coming up and a while back she said she loves gifts that feel personal, so I decided to make her a fabric pouch with hand embroidery on the front. It was not some quick little craft either. I had already spent a few evenings on it after work, redone part of the stitching once, bought a better lining because the first one looked cheap, the whole annoying process. A few days before her birthday she came by for coffee and saw it on the table because I was finishing the last bits. She picked it up and said, half laughing, "Oh this is actually almost normal if not for this part," and pointed at one side where the stitching was a little uneven. Then she added that if I fixed that section it would look "proper enough to use outside." I just stood there holding my mug like an idiot for a second. She was not yelling or anything, but it landed badly. One of those tiny comments that somehow makes you feel dumb all at once. I said something like yeah well thats the handmade part and changed the subject.
After she left I got so irritated I put the whole thing away and decided I was not touching it again. I did not throw it out or start some huge argument, I just stopped working on it. For her actual birthday I gave her a card and a small store bought gift instead. She noticed right away and later texted asking what happened to the pouch. I told her honestly that after what she said, I did not really feel like finishing it for her. She said I was being too sensitive, that she was just giving helpful feedback, and that if I am going to give handmade stuff I cannot expect people to act like every part looks amazing. One mutual friend said I made it weird by taking the comment personally and then quietly switching gifts instead of just saying something right there. Another said calling a handmade gift "almost normal" was rude as hell and she would have gotten nothing after that. I keep going back and forth. Yeah, maybe I should have said something immediately instead of stewing over it like a moron. But I also do not think someone gets to insult a gift they have not even received yet and then expect me to go home and keep sewing for them like some cheerful little workshop goblin.
TL;DR: I was making a female friend a handmade birthday gift, she saw it before I finished and called it "almost normal" except for one uneven part, then suggested I redo it. I stopped working on it and gave her a store bought gift instead. Now she says I overreacted.