To: Rocky

This post has been a long time coming.  Right after I received my sewing machine, I jumped right in to making curtains.  My thought was, "I sewed a tote bag when I was 10; that's all the practice I need, right?".  And "What's so hard about sewing straight lines?".  Sew maybe I was a bit naive and presumptuous, but lucky for me, the curtains turned out awesome!  It turns out sewing straight seams on a big, rectangular piece of fabric isn't all that hard! 

Sew anyway, let's start from the beginning.  A couple of months ago I moseyed in to one of my favorite places to find cheap fabric and found this gorgeous fabric I had to have.  My first idea was to whip up some new curtains with it to replace the ones that were, at the time, hanging in our living room.  It was a little bit of a bold choice considering it had pink in it (and the fact that I have a very manly husband), but I thought it would be great at bringing spring into the house.

  Sew, I bought it, got home, and sadly realized it wouldn't look as good as I had thought.  :(  The background of the print on the fabric was a creamy white (or so it looked in the store) but when I brought it home it looked a little more light tan than creamy white and clashed with the shade of light tan on our walls.  Sew the wheels in my mind started rolling.  One of my sisters is pregnant, sew I could make them for her to put in her little girl's room...but little girl or little boy, we wouldn't know which until the day he or she enters the world a few months down the road.  Then I remembered that my other sister, Rocky (her real name is Raquel but that's just a technicality) has bedding that would really complement the colors in the fabric.  Sew, hoping she only had one window in her bedroom, I called her with my idea (which I excitedly exclaimed could be her birthday present) and she told me she and her one-windowed bedroom would love new curtains!  Out came my sewing machine!

First, I cut the five yards of fabric in half to create two panels. 

Yes, I used my living room floor as it is the only flat space large enough to make clean cuts.  :)

Then, like a good beginning seamstress, I ironed down the hem on each side of the panels by first folding down a half-inch hem, ironing it down, then folding once more sew that in the end I had an inch of fabric on each side as a hem.  Make sense?  Two folds, one hem.  :)

  After I ironed down each side, I pinned the hems about every two feet just to make sure they'd stay in place until I got thread in them.  Then I got to sewing.  Everything was going great - I figured out how to thread my bobbin (YouTube was extremely helpful), thread my machine, and guide the fabric through...and then the needle broke.  :(

Boo.  Not planning on this bump in the road, I didn't think to buy replacement needles.  Sew, there my fun (for that day anyway) ended until I had time to grab new needles.  When I did purchase new needles though, I learned that there are different types of needles - different strengths for different types of fabrics.  Who knew?  Not beginner me!  :)  So I picked up some light duty needles (which where like the one I had that had broken) and some heavier duty ones (which I really should've been using).

Sew, with a new needle and renewed motivation, I zipped through the rest of the seams and mailed my first-ever, homemade curtains to Rocky just in time for her birthday (okay, so maybe I was a couple of months early) and she hung them up.

Here are a couple of before shots of her lonely window:

I must mention that she hung the curtain brackets and rod all by her lonesome.  I'm not going to say that we're born with innate power tools skills in our family but...well, we are.  I was so proud of her!  :)

Sew, without further ado, here's her new, curtained view:

I even sent her the little piece of remaining fabric so she could dress up the little decor pillow on her bed.  Isn't she good?

Sew that's it folks, my first, I-did-it-all-by-myself sewing project ever.  Needless to say, it certainly wasn't the last, which reminds me that I've got so much more to share with you as it regards curtains (read about my sewing adventure for Trading Spaces here).  I did eventually find some awesome fabric for our living room and I'll share those curtains in the future!  Have a great weekend!

P.S.  We were busy this entire last week running a "Theology of the Body for Teens Summer Party Camp" so, the love seat hasn't been touched.  But, this week should be a little more relaxed so hopefully I'll have some progress (hopefully lots of progress) to write about next week!