I taught myself piecrust when I was in college. My friends and roommates were always happy to eat my experiments, and eventually I got it down. Always, always use King Arthur flour … that’s my one must-have. Other AP flours have less protein and don’t behave the same way.

Good luck!
ps
the pie birds — and sheep — are adorable, but I do the same thing Twistie does, cutting vents and putting a cookie sheet underneath to catch the drips.

I have amoderately working theory on this.

I have a heck of a time with pie crusts, as does my mother. We both have very warm hands.
Our family friend and my aunt both make excellent pie crust, they have cold hands.

If I am careful to rinse my hands in cold water when working with pie crust, It turns out.

I think it’s that because the fat is broken up into such tiny pieces, it doesn’t take much heat to melt it resulting in a solid, not flakey crust, remember , the flakes are formed when the butter melts and bubbles.

I would be interested to hear if you and your mother fit into this theory.

And if you guys aren’t big bird fans, there’s the aforementioned sheep, little men and maids, elephants, tree frogs, tepees, bears, houses, cacti, and all sorts of other pie vents.

I don’t do any of Leigh’s tricks, with the exception of making sure the water (and butter, if I’m using that rather than shortning…and I do when I’m making a sweet pie) are ice cold and not overworking the dough. But I’ve watched people make pie crust step-by-step the way I do and have it not turn out, so I never tell people those are my secrets. They’re well advertised, anyway, and they never worked for my mother.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you, NtB.

(sends golden, flaky pie crust vibes)