Yesterday I went to the fabric store and found some fabric to make curtains. Normally, I would just buy curtains, but my bedroom window is only 37 inches long and just beneath it is my window air conditioner (which would not work as well if it were covered by curtains). I found two fabrics I liked and I couldn't decide between the two. THEN a thought hit me: reversible curtains. I wanted them to have a backing anyway, so why not use another pretty fabric?
Let me preface this with the completely truthful statement that I SUCK at sewing. It's not that I don't have the skill, it's that I don't have the patience. Measuring, cutting, pinning...and then trying to figure out how to sew things so that the part you want outside isn't sewn inside. Too much for me. My past curtain making has included everything from shoddily sewn pieces of fabric on a curtain rod to raw fabric tacked up in front of a window.
This time I looked up information online on sewing curtains. I learned how to measure the window and add up the allowances for hems and other whatnots. I learned that I needed to press the seams before pinning and sewing them. (Never thought of that, but I was always too lazy to do that anyway.)
After buying the fabric, I came home and thought long and hard about how I wanted to make these curtains. Someone had suggested making tabs to hang the curtains instead of a pocket. I wasn't going to, but as I was trying to figure out how to make the curtains double-sided with a working pocket, I decided to try the tab thing. I spent THREE HOURS measuring and cutting and pressing the seams for 14 tabs and measuring and cutting the fabric for the panels. Then I took a break. I came back to the project and sewed the best hems I've ever sewn on those tabs. I thought long and hard about how to pin the tabs to the two fabric panels. When I sewed that first panel with the best seams I've ever done, I was amazed. It was perfect! Then I realized I had to make another one with the same seam measurements. Luckily I measured when I pinned and my second panel turned out pretty darn close in size to the first one. Yay!! I am so dang proud of myself for taking the time to make these and make them look good. The only thing I decided after the fact is that I should have made all the tabs from the same fabric instead of using one fabric for one panel and one fabric for the other. But it's tolerable. I hung them with both sides showing for the pictures, but right now I have the brown side up on both panels.
While I was making the curtains, I was so hyper-focused that I guess I forgot about how scared I was. I was glad to have a little bit of calm in my mood. I thought I'd be back to my anxious self tonight, but for some reason I'm feeling a lot better. I still have short panic attacks when I hear an unfamiliar noise, but again I feel so much better tonight.
2 comments:
awesome job!!!! It really is all about taking the time, and when you do take the time in preparation, the sewing goes smoother and quicker, with a lot less unpicking lol.
I confess. we have 2 blankets at our window right now. and yes, 2 blankets even though I sew!
LOL @ the blankets.
Thank you, thank you. *Bows*
I still smile when I go in my bedroom and look at those curtains. And they really block out just about all of the light, both inside (and I assume) outside.
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