We Have Curtains

Goal #3 for July ... replacing Walter's curtains with something darker that featured frogs.  DONE.  Phew.  And let me tell you - it wasn't easy.  The sewing gods were against me.

I had purchased enough material to get three panels, one of which I cut in half so that it could be attached to the other two panels to make wider curtain panels.  The cutting went fine.  Sewing the half panel to the first full panel went fine.  When I did the second one I sewed it wrong, managing to get the seam to the front side.  Ugh - I had to manually, and carefully, pull out the thread for the whole thing and re-do it properly.  Next, I ran out of top thread.  Had to stop and re-thread a new bobbin (thankfully I had bought two when buying the material for the curtains).  The first one I selected was, I realized, too thick.  After doing one edge with it and seeing the rough outcome I decided to switch to the other new bobbin.  Next, the bottom thread ran out.  Had to stop and use the sewing machine to wrap new thread on.  Then the thread managed to get stuck underneath and jammed the sewing machine.  I got it cleaned up, but in doing so managed to get things out of line.  The needle could no longer go through properly.  I struggled to fix it, Manuel tried.  I took the rest of the night off.  Bummed.  The next morning I decided to pull out the old trusty manual sewing machine that my Mother had decided to give me.  It was the one I had learned on as a teenager.  My Mother no longer needed it as she had recently purchased a simple electric one.  At the time I had stored it away in the basement, unsure what I would do with it.  Opening the case I wasn't sure what to expect.  All those years ago ... it all came back to me.  I needed to put top and bottom thread in.  No problem.  I was up and running within 10 minutes.

Initially, it was a bit strange having to use my right hand to make the stitching happen, but it wasn't hard.  In less than 30 minutes the curtains were done - no electricity needed.  They still let some light in, but not as much as the yellow ones did.  Plus they are much wider than the old ones, meaning they give a better definition to the window.  Walter likes them, which is important.  I still need to get a few more clip rings to make them hang better, but they are perfectly serviceable (and enjoyable) as they are.