Posted By FarmerJ on February 23, 2010

Almost two years in the making, and the master bedroom curtains are finally done and hung.  They’re certainly full of country charm.  They display a certain amount of, shall we say, character.  Yes.  That sounds good ~ better than they’re full of oops and uh-ohs!

I’ve never claimed to be a seamstress.  Shaw!  I’ve never claimed to be able to sew, and with good reason.  I can’t!  In my 7th grade home-ec  class, we had the choice of sewing something or doing a latch hook rug.  I chose the latch hook rug.

It’s a good thing we live in the country, because we haven’t had anything on the windows for over a year now.  There were some cheap ugly mini blinds up there, but neither Darling Husbie nor I could stand them so I took them down.  Other than the bunny rabbits, squirrels, coons and occasional peeping possum, there isn’t much to worry about ‘seeing’ you out here.  Once in awhile, some friends would venture out during hunting season, but they all knew to park in a designated area so I knew they were on the back forty.  Lest they accidentally catch a glimpse of something through the window so frightening it would cause them to inadvertently fire their weapon and scare away their prey.

Anyway, the curtains have been in the making for almost two years now.  The former female owner of the house left the curtain rod she’d been using.  I found the perfect fabric back in June, 2008 when Wal-Mart was closing out their fabric section.  I think I paid $1 per yard ~ I just bought whatever was left on the bolt.  My friend, Spark Plug, had given me some ring clips back in June, 2008 when she came to visit me.  My friend and twin-by-choice gave me some of the heavy lined curtains she’d obtained and wasn’t going to use all of back in November.  I had all of the makings for new bedroom curtains, now if only I could sew.

Why didn’t I just go purchase some curtains to hang on the window and be done with it, you ask?  Believe me, I thought about it, and more than once!  But, you see, I had this mental image of the drapes that were here when we first viewed the barn house.  They were perfect for the room.  To describe them, they sound bizarre, but they really were most suitable for the colors and decor of the room.  They had all the right colors ~ that hard-to-explain but oh-so-calming olive green, that rich not-cranberry-but-not-burnt orange-either burgundy, and that gold that pulls it all together.  And, they were striped.  They had to be striped to draw in the odd-but-fitting wallpaper on the opposite wall containing the fireplace.  Sadly, the former female owner of the house took them with her when she left.  So, I really was thrilled when I’d found an extremely comparable fabric at Wally World.

Now, since I have a new hobby of quilting, I made myself a rule that I couldn’t begin quilting until I made the bedroom curtains.  [Awwww, man!]  But it worked ~ it gave me the motivation I needed to get them done once and for all!

I started by ripping the seams in the heavy lined curtains.  Honestly, I thought the lining was separate from the curtain fabric, but I quickly learned that it wasn’t.  No worries, it’s the white lining that is going to show on my curtains ~ what do I care what the ‘inside’ looks like?!

I set about measuring the distance from the curtain rod to the floor and added enough for the seam allowances.  I cut two panels of the fabric to length.  Then, I pressed out the wrinkles from both the fabric and the heavy lined curtains so everything would lay flat.  After that, I was ready to press the seams and insert the liner in preparation of [gasp!] sewing.  (I’m not sure what’s causing the shadow effect in the photo, but the lining really is all white like in the right of the photo.)

I’d done some reading about making curtains before I began this project.  Almost everything cautioned about the difficulty in getting the panels the same length while measuring and pressing the seams in place; that once you get the seams and length equal, the hard part is finished and you’re ready to enjoy sewing.  I placed my panels one on top of the other and side by side, and they both lined up perfectly.  Ha!  To me, that was the easy part ~ the hard part was yet to come.

I set up the sewing machine, which is actually the table you see centered in the window up above, as ready as I was ever going to be to get this darned project over with sew my curtains with love.  With determination flowing through my veins and thread flowing through the needle, I placed the fabric under the pressure foot and lowered it down.  These won’t be the most perfectly sewn curtains, but they’ll be sewn.  Besides, who’s really going to look at them that closely?

Okay, deep breath.  Bobbin threaded?  Check.  Needle threaded?  Check.  Pressure foot lowered into place?  Check.  Stitch setting on ‘Straight’?  Check.  Thread tension correct?  Check.  Stitch setting on ‘Straight’?  Check.  And, away I went!  About a stitch per second.  Which is actually quite incredibly, painstakingly s-l-o-w.  Think about it.  One-one thousand.  Two-one thousand.  Three-one thousand.  Each count is one cycle of the needle.  Um, yeah.  Not impressive.

And, get this!  I think I’m going to have to take my machine in for a check-up.  Despite having the stitch setting on ‘Straight,’ there are more zig-zags in that stitching than there are cows in Wyoming!  Nah.  Seriously, the machine is functioning just as it should and the cause of all the zigs and the zags is complete operator malfunction.  I couldn’t sew a straight line to save my life ~ and I was following a stripe, even!

Remember my smug confidence, “Besides, who’s really going to look at them that closely?”  Well, I was over at my Nebraska Mom’s house the other day.  She was showing me a technique required to make my first-ever quilt square.  Since she’s the one who twisted my arm into starting the whole quilting thing, she knew of my rule of having to make the curtains first.  So, when my Nebraska Mom, who is a terrific seamstress, said she wanted to come over to look at my curtains, I abruptly blurted out, “No!”  She looked at me, completely startled at how quickly I’d said that.  “I mean, yes, you can come over, but you cannot look at my curtains!”  Oy!  I’ve told her time and again that I can’t sew, but I’m in no hurry to prove it to her.  She just giggles at me, obviously not taking any of this seriously, as she should be.

At any rate, the curtains are done and hung.  They’re certainly full of country charm, and they display a certain amount of character.  More character than I’d hoped for, perhaps.  Are they the curtains that will remain there forever?  No, probably not.  But, for now, Darling Husbie has expressed how nice it is to have curtains and no longer feel as though he’s sleeping on the deck.  And so therefore, I, along with my curtains, shall be content.  Content with country charm.  ♥

Categories: A Needle Pulling Thread
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