More Sewing: Curtains and Baby Carriers
I haven't forgotten about the recipe I promised, but I wanted to quickly share some completed sewing projects.
We finally, FINALLY finished hanging curtains in our renovated family room. I'm not sure why we can't get through a single home improvement project without ridiculous complications, but it seems to be the way of things with us. This project went something like this:
- I ordered curtains, sheers, and a double rod in November.
- The curtains were back-ordered and took several extra weeks to arrive (this was not obvious up front).
- Once everything arrived, we took a curtain and a sheer out of the package and held them up on the rods, thus discovering that the grommet top curtains and grommet sheers whacked each other when moving back and forth. No good.
- Returned the grommet top sheers, bought rod pocket sheers.
- Discovered that the rod pocket sheers now hung down below the grommet top curtains, being of different brand and different fixture.
- Researched how to hem sheer fabric.
- Hemmed 4 sheers.
- Hubby then went to mount the rod on the wall. While mounting the second end bracket: "I hit something."
- That something was the waste removal pipe from the upstairs bathroom toilet, which of course runs right through the wall we were mounting on. Providentially, he didn't break through the pipe.
- The supply duct for the heat vent was also in that wall, right next to the pipe. So he had to drill perfectly in between. No biggie, ha!
- We had to move the first bracket we mounted so that it'd be the same on both sides. This meant we now had 3 unwanted holes in the wall.
- Hubby painstakingly patched and painted over the holes, drilled new ones, and we hung the curtains.
They do make the room.
Sheer fabric isn't a lot of fun to sew and a year ago I would not have attempted such a thing, but I've gained some experience and skill with my machine and I'm thankful it all turned out ok. I've had lots of practice sewing straight lines making more mei tais. I'm really delighted with the way these turned out. You'd pay several hundred dollars to purchase something like this, and I understand why they command the prices they do--they're labor intensive, quality materials aren't cheap, and they're wonderful to wear. That made them all the more satisfying to DIY.
I primarily followed the Barefoot and Pregnant Es. mei tai pattern and tweaked with suggestions from Cheaper and Better. The pink fabric is Colimacon et Cie wrap fabric, which I've talked about before. The lighting in some of these is poor because I definitely worked after dark several nights. ;)
After finishing that one, I made another out of a cotton jacquard tablecloth (DII, "Anchors Away!") I found on clearance at my grocery store. The stripes are an old Target tablecloth I picked up at Goodwill a while back.
I also chopped one of my woven wraps that wasn't working great for me because of the size, sold half, and sewed the remaining half into a ring sling.
I've got more projects planned but they are on the back burner for now while we push through the final months of school. :)
We finally, FINALLY finished hanging curtains in our renovated family room. I'm not sure why we can't get through a single home improvement project without ridiculous complications, but it seems to be the way of things with us. This project went something like this:
- I ordered curtains, sheers, and a double rod in November.
- The curtains were back-ordered and took several extra weeks to arrive (this was not obvious up front).
- Once everything arrived, we took a curtain and a sheer out of the package and held them up on the rods, thus discovering that the grommet top curtains and grommet sheers whacked each other when moving back and forth. No good.
- Returned the grommet top sheers, bought rod pocket sheers.
- Discovered that the rod pocket sheers now hung down below the grommet top curtains, being of different brand and different fixture.
- Researched how to hem sheer fabric.
- Hemmed 4 sheers.
- Hubby then went to mount the rod on the wall. While mounting the second end bracket: "I hit something."
- That something was the waste removal pipe from the upstairs bathroom toilet, which of course runs right through the wall we were mounting on. Providentially, he didn't break through the pipe.
- The supply duct for the heat vent was also in that wall, right next to the pipe. So he had to drill perfectly in between. No biggie, ha!
- We had to move the first bracket we mounted so that it'd be the same on both sides. This meant we now had 3 unwanted holes in the wall.
- Hubby painstakingly patched and painted over the holes, drilled new ones, and we hung the curtains.
They do make the room.
Sheer fabric isn't a lot of fun to sew and a year ago I would not have attempted such a thing, but I've gained some experience and skill with my machine and I'm thankful it all turned out ok. I've had lots of practice sewing straight lines making more mei tais. I'm really delighted with the way these turned out. You'd pay several hundred dollars to purchase something like this, and I understand why they command the prices they do--they're labor intensive, quality materials aren't cheap, and they're wonderful to wear. That made them all the more satisfying to DIY.
I primarily followed the Barefoot and Pregnant Es. mei tai pattern and tweaked with suggestions from Cheaper and Better. The pink fabric is Colimacon et Cie wrap fabric, which I've talked about before. The lighting in some of these is poor because I definitely worked after dark several nights. ;)
After finishing that one, I made another out of a cotton jacquard tablecloth (DII, "Anchors Away!") I found on clearance at my grocery store. The stripes are an old Target tablecloth I picked up at Goodwill a while back.
I also chopped one of my woven wraps that wasn't working great for me because of the size, sold half, and sewed the remaining half into a ring sling.
Comments