I usually take a break from sewing doll clothes the last 3 weeks or so of December and try to catch up on things that need to be done around my house.
But, you know how it goes…if you’re a mechanic, your car is the last to be fixed; if you’re a hairdresser, your hair always needs a fix-up; if you’re a carpenter, your to-do list gets put off for ages it seems. Well, I guess as a seamstress, my list is for home projects that get put on the back burner. I’ve had two projects I wanted to get done…and we decided to have a small Couple’s Christmas Party on Sunday night, so I turned my attention to a few things that I hoped I could get finished. I thought they would be fairly quick and yield pretty good results.
My sewing room is right off the living room and if I leave the door open, when you walk in the front door of our house, you see straight into my room, and my cutting table is the main thing you see. I have my very own sewing room and am very grateful for it, and love it being next to the living room. I can hear what’s going on and even participate in the conversations through a cutout window area. I’d like to have shutters put up one of these days so I could keep it closed off if I needed to, but that’s down the road a bit.
I decided I COULD do something today to make my cutting table less messy looking underneath. I have all kinds of things stacked under it and even though I try to keep it neat, it still looks a bit cluttered.
I had a large green and tan homespun checked curtain that was pretty long and would fit around my table and I already had a new package of Industrial Strength sticky Velcro that I had bought at JoAnn Fabrics. I took the curtain hem and header out to give me more length and pressed it to get all the wrinkles and crinkles out. I measured how far it needed to be from the floor to the edge of the table and cut it to the right height. Next I turned under about 1 inch and pressed it flat.
Then I stitched a row of half inch elastic to the top edge pulling it pretty taut as I sewed it on. When I got to the end of that first row, I stitched another row about 1/4″ away from the first row. It gathered it up just enough to give it a nice look and it turned out to be long enough to wrap around the ends of my cutting table.
I then took the Velcro and cut it into 1/2″ wide strips about 2-3″ long, peeled off the backing and stuck them onto the edges of my table. It is very sticky and very strong so it should hold up for quite a while.
I wrapped it around the corners and then stuck the other side of the velcro to the elasticized fabric, just at the top edge, matching up where it should go from where it was stuck on my table.
I was very pleased when I got it all done and this is the final look. It’s so much neater and now I can really put more stuff behind it and it won’t show.
The second project I want to tell you about is a bathroom curtain. We finished our bathroom (finally after 10 years…) and I just couldn’t decide what kind of curtain I wanted to have in there. We have pretty new windows and I love the corner blocks we used, so I didn’t want to cover them up with a curtain rod on the outside. I found a tension rod and had piece of fabric just pinned over the rod with straight pins… for eons…seriously for probably 3 months! It wasn’t hemmed…just flapped over the rod and hanging down to the floor. I’m sure anyone who came over to my house wondered why in the world, with me being a seamstress, did I have curtains like this??? I wonder too!!
Well, I got them finished and it wasn’t hard… I just hemmed the long edges. Then I hemmed the bottom…all on the machine. I made a sort of balloon header at the top since I had the long length of fabric already. I made a header and then the bigger part was just like a mock ruffle. I like it and it’s so much better than “pins across the top of a tension rod!” Don’t you agree?
YAY! Two home projects to cross off my list! Lots to go, but these two were certainly welcome…Okay now, that I’ve played today, I need to get my housecleaning done before my party…
See you tomorrow,
Blessings and Merry Christmas, Jeanne
Oh Jeanne, I know what you mean about those projects that are small and always on your mind, but NEVER get done! I have those too! And it feels just wonderful when you do get to them, doesn’t it? Both projects of yours look wonderful!
I must say, where do you get the enthusiasm to have a party in the midst of all the other Christmas goings on? And that Chocolate Mint Cookie Bark is just heavenly! I made a batch the other day, and it is about gone! Oops, probably on my hips somewhere! Thank you for the recipe and I am going to get more done today for gifts for OTHERS!
Linda,
Where do I get the enthusiasm for something else to do? It’s called CRAZY, my dear, Crazy! I have lots to do today, but so much of it had to wait till the last minute… and there I was sewing yesterday… see I told you… CRAZY!
I told you that cookie bark was good… too good…that’s one of the things I have to RE-DO… because I nibbled on mine so much, now I have to make more!
So glad you liked it!
Blessings and Merry Christmas, Jeanne
Your projects look very nice. Your sewing is always so precise and neat looking.
I love that grayish – blue paint color with the white wainscoting. Very pretty.
It’s fun to see your sewing room in bits and pieces…that’s where the marvelous treasures are created.
Enjoy your Christmas party.
HI Paula,
The paint is called Everest Rest and it’s a lovely bluish green… I liked it SO much, I painted both of my bathrooms the same color…hey, why mess with perfection! I have to agree with you….it is very pretty… Maybe sometime I’ll share a “bathroom” post. We are pretty proud of what we accomplished in both rooms.
And I’ll share my sewing room sometime too… It’s pretty cleaned up now… now that I’m having a party tomorrow night… EEP… I better get the last minute touches done…
Yesterday sewing… what was I thinking with all I have to do…
Thanks Paula,
Blessings and Merry Christmas to you, Jeanne