I just sewed curtains for Joseph's room.
Now, I recognize this would be no big deal for most people. I know many people, including my Mom, who regularly sew amazingly beautiful items for their homes. But I am not one of those people.
As I talked about in a previous post, the last time I did a sewing project, I learned to sew as a child but never loved it. Put a paint can and a paintbrush in my hand and I am happy for days, confidently transforming rooms with color. But, give me a sewing project or walk me into a fabric store and I start to feel anxious and hyperventilate.
I have a sewing machine and I use it several times as year for assorted mending/Scout badge adhering/random projects, but I never feel entirely comfortable with my ability to sew something well. It's not the actual running the needle through the fabric that bothers me - that part is really quite easy and even fun (I like to zoom a straight line down the fabric and amaze myself with how fast I am). The part that completely befuddles my mind is all the meticulous planning involved in most sewing projects. The measuring and measuring again and allowing for seam allowances and gathering and blah blah blah blah and understanding how the individual steps of the sewing process will affect the finished product. That part just drives me crazy because the end result rarely meets even my most relaxed of expectations.
We have been working to re-do Joseph's new room (Aubrey's old room) over the past month or so. After looking through some bedding options, Joseph chose a super cute "pirate themed" bed set. The set included the bedding, a bedskirt, and a valance. However, he has an extra wide window in his room so the valance was much too narrow, and he doesn't actually need a bedskirt because his bed has drawers at the bottom. So, I decided to take apart the fabric of the bedskirt to piece together fabric to sew onto both sides of the valance to make it fit the window.
This was a particular challenge for my non-sewing-brain because my measurements and cuts had to result in pieces that fit the existing pieces exactly so it would look smooth when I sewed it all together. Then I needed to sew more tabs for the top of the curtain.
I measured and figured and re-figured one afternoon this last week. Once I got going I couldn't put the project down, and I didn't get anything else done the rest of the day.
But, by dinner time this was the finished product:
I love it! And I'm so proud of myself!
Only I know that I made several mistakes in my measurements which resulted in errors requiring some strategic and creative sewing so that everything fit together as it should. But, who will ever know but me, right?
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