To Sew Or Not To Sew

Have I happened to mention that I don’t sew? 

Well, perhaps I don’t sew but I do have this genetic defect that allows me to think I can do most anything if I try hard enough (with the exception of major plumbing and electrical of course).  Now that doesn’t mean I actually can do everything that I think I can but I will generally at least try.

So with that in mind shortly after I bought my house I purchased fabric to make curtains with.  I had looked at custom window treatments (or more accurately drooled over them) but couldn’t justify the cost for something I could “do myself”.  So off to Zimman’s I went.

The window in it's original dressing
when I moved in - don't you just love the
window shade that matches the wallpaper?

Well, fast forward a couple of years and I ashamed to admit curtains were not still made - fabric was still sitting. 

I had no pattern (and why would I make this any easier on myself by buying one?) so decided to take a look at some curtains I had to see how they were constructed to see if I could copy them.  I had a custom valance as well as a ready-made valance that I had used in previous houses but neither of which were just what I wanted for this house. 

Old ready-made was perfect for measuring

I measured & drew out a plan, then realized I hadn’t bought any fabric to line the curtain so headed out to Freddy Farkle’s Fabric Outlet to find just the right khaki.  Can’t have unlined curtains, right?

A couple of weeks ago I vowed to finally get this done, laid out all of the materials and realized I hadn’t purchased enough trim so back I went to find more.  After visits to several fabric shops I couldn’t find the trim to match my original selection so ended up going a different route.  Note to self, next time measure twice, cut once.

Pinning in the trim

This past Sunday evening I finally sat down and pinned everything together and last night got down to business with the sewing machine.  I have a very basic sewing machine that my Mom had picked up for me a few years ago at a yard sale – a new swanky (i.e. expensive) model would be lost on a novice non-sewer such as me.  I’m sure if knew how to use a swankier model it would have made sewing that trim on easier but my basic model worked just fine!

It took me a total of about 3 hours and luckily I had thought it through enough that it wasn’t too stressful once I actually got down to it.  I somehow knew that ironing as you go makes all the difference in your end product so pinned, ironed then sewed and it went fairly smoothly. 

Before the final stitching - the trim is stitched in but that
was all at this point

And here is the finished product:

Not totally perfect but not bad for a novice who doesn't
sew...right?