A Trip Down Memory Lane

I meant to write this post several days ago, but...life happened. Anyway, August 17 marked one year from the day I started this blog. (Woohoo!) So, I figured I'd take a minute to remember why I even decided to start blogging in the first place. It all started with this fiasco - my first clear sign that I have no idea how to run a house. Seeing as how I had only been at home full time for a couple months at that point I was sure there would be many more incidences like it, and it was just too hilarious not to share. Luckily, everything got cleared up fairly quickly, and I haven't really had any more incidences like that again.
There is (of course) a lot that goes in to running a house and home ownership in general, and I've documented some of my attempts at these tasks. Over the past year I have learned about gardening (whether I like yard work or not), a little about cooking (I have particularly enjoyed trying out new recipes and sharing some of my favorites), a lot about pregnancy (and it's perks!), and now parenting. It's been fun being able to document so much, and I particularly enjoy being able to document my experiences with Joseph. It seems to much easier for me to document his milestones virtually than by keeping a journal (although I am attempting to keep a journal as well), and I love being able to share the fun (and cute!) times with all of you. Here's to another fun year blogging!

Curtains - Take Two

It's true. I FINALLY finished the curtains for our living room. I started them waaaaaaaay back at the end of summer. As in - that's when I bought both the pattern and the material for this (unknowingly) ginormous project. Now, don't get me wrong, I knew this was going to be a big project. It's just that I had no idea how big it was actually going to be.

 

To be fair - I could probably have completed the curtains in a month or two if I had made it my priority and just buckled down and did it. There were steps in the process, however, that caused delays. Figuring out what size I needed each curtain panel to be was the first of many hurdles. My pattern wasn't clear on this, and I basically had to figure it out on my own (i.e. make an educated guess about what size the panels should be). Then cutting the fabric was a bit of a to-do becasue the panels were so large. I had to clear out most of the front room so that I had enough floor space to measure and cut the material. Once all 8 panels were cut (4 main panels + 4 panels for the lining) I had to figure out exactly how I was going to piece everything together. Was I supposed to seam the sides together first? What about the top and bottom seams? What about the tabs that would go at the top? It all seemed to complicated (no pun intended). So, what did I do? I did what any amateur housewife would do - I called my mom for help :)

 

Yes. I called her and she explained the entire process for what I needed to do, but I still didn't feel confident that I was going to do everything correctly. I'm a bit of a perfectionist and always worried I'm going to mess something up - especially when I'm sewing (as if I couldn't go back and fix it later...). So, instead I took everything home over Thanksgiving so she could help me solve this puzzle I was facing. Unfortunately, Thanksgiving ended up being pretty busy, so my mom was really only able to explain to me (again) what I needed to do. But this time she was able to visually show me with the pieces I had cut instead of just telling me over the phone. Even after this tutorial I still wasn't 100% confident I knew what I was doing.

 

The next few weeks passed with nary a stitch being made. This was mostly because life got busy just before Christmas, and I was still feeling wary about this whole situation I had gotten myself into. My lack of progress did not go unnoticed. Every time my mom and I spoke on the phone she asked how the curtains were coming along, and every time I had to tell her I hadn't done anything yet. I promised her that as soon as the holiday season was over I would definitely make more progress. My husband was also getting annoyed that we STILL had a random sheet hanging over the window that kept falling down (the sheet came after I donated the vertical blinds that were originally covering the window - it was a temporary fix :). So, I promised Will that I would make the curtains a priority in the new year - it would be at the top of my "to-do" list. And, for the most part, it was.

 

I made fairly steady progress in January and February. I started out by hemming the lining. I then sewed the front panel to the lining and ironed out the seams. 

Next came the tabs. I had to cut, seam, invert, and iron 32 tabs. This seemed to take FOREVER. It was a very tedious process - just making the 32 tabs took somwhere in the vicinity of 2.5-3.5 hours. 

This is the tangle of tabs after hemming 23 of them. I ran out of
thread on my bobbin after 23 and didn't feel like rethreading the
spool (is that what it's called?) for ONE  measly tab. So, I just saved
 that last tab for later (I had already completed the first 8 tabs).

Once the tabs were complete I had to sew them to the main curtain panels (between the front panel and the lining). The sewing part wasn't too challenging, but figuring out the spacing of the tabs (both vertically and horizontally) took a good bit of time and effort.

Notice the tape measure in the upper left hand corner. I had just
finished spacing the tabs and was in the process of pinning them.

The tabs had been pinned and were ready to be sewn.

Once I had sewn the tabs all that was left was to sew the final hem - this would determine the final length of the curtains and where they fell with respect to the floor. But, before I could do this I needed to hang/install the curtain rod. Luckily, I have basic drilling skillz, so I was able to put the curtain rod up all by myself :) 

Isn't that beautiful?

After hanging the rod I hung two panels at a time so I could pin them. This part was much trickier than I thought it would be, because the curtains didn't necessarily hang like I thought they would. If I had simply sewn a straight hem at the bottom of the curtains (which I was tempted to do) they would have looked AWFUL. But, I had my mother's wisdom to go by and knew to hang them before doing any pinning.

Here's the final product. The fruits of my labor :)

open

closed

Now I need to decide what to do with the extra material.... I'm thinking I might make a few throw pillows to match :)

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 8)

1) I finished the curtains for the living room last weekend! This was no small feat. It has taken me literally months to complete this project, and I'm so happy it's over. There will be a "curtain" post coming soon!

2) Some creature has been getting into my tulips. I'm not sure what kind of creature it is, but I shall begin my research today. At least 2 of the bulbs have been dug up and a bunch of the tops of the sprouts have been eaten off! Needless to say, I was fairly upset to discover this when I got home last night. If you know anything about what might be the culprit I'm all ears.

3) I was a slacker and did nothing to celebrate St. Patrick's Day this year. I didn't even wear any green. Pitiful, I know. But, until yesterday I only had five maternity shirts and none of them were green. I guess I'm going to have to step it up next year :)

4) My book of Shorter Christian Prayer came in this week. I'm excited to get started using it even if it is over a week into Lent.

5) The ants are back. This means I'm going to have to be ridiculously diligent about keeping the kitchen spic-n-span to keep them at bay. They must have found another way into the kitchen, or maybe I just need to replace the Cinnamon. I now know what the next major item on my "to-do" list is. Darn those little ants!

6) I purchased bedding and paint for the nursery this week. It's exciting to really get started with putting the nursery together. I'm really excited about the bedding because it's so cute (but what baby stuff isn't?). I went with an animal theme and the bumper, quilt, etc are SUPER soft and have lots of different textures. 

7) My favorite Facebook quote of the week comes from my sister, Julia. Yay! I can't wait!

"One more month to go! Expecting our second in mid-April. :)"

Curtains - Take One

This past summer I decided I was going to make curtains for every room in the house. I decided I would start with our living room, so I went to the fabric store, chose a pattern, chose some fabric, and came home. At the time I was in the middle of working on my quilt and wanted to hem another set of curtains before I started on this set, so curtain making kind of got put on the back burner for a bit.
Then my mom came up in early October (or was it September?) and helped me pick out lining for the curtains. After she left she asked about how the curtains were coming along every time we talked on the phone - unfortunately, every time we talked (until very recently) I had some reason why I hadn't started them. I finally got around to cutting the main panels a week or two before Thanksgiving. Even just cutting the panels took a good bit of time because I don't have a large workspace. Anyway, I took the panels home over Thanksgiving for a little help from my mom.
The pattern I bought was pretty confusing. They assumed I had a lot more sewing knowledge than I actually have - and I don't feel like I'm a novice. Alas, my mom helped me figure out what I needed to do in order to get these things done.
So, fairly soon after I got home from Thanksgiving I began piecing these suckers together. I sat down one night and began working on the tabs for the top of the curtains. Making those darn tabs is going to take a long time. I completed about 8 tabs in one hour - I still need 24 more :-/
Here are a few pictures of the progress I've made so far...

The first 8 tabs after they'd been cut, sewn, inverted and ironed.

While inverting the tabs I realized I should have left enough thread at each end to tie off the seam, so I had to be careful about holding the seams together. But it turned out ok - now I know to make sure to do that with the rest of the tabs.
I also had to iron the tabs so that the seam was in the center on the back of each tab. Here's what that looked like.

Sorry if the photo is a little dark - the only way I could get the seam to show was by not using a flash.

Anyway, now I have to seam together the main panel with the lining, iron that and then figure out how I want the tabs spaced before I sew them on. Making these curtains is going to take a lot more time than I originally thought it would. I'm fairly certain this will be my first and last set of curtains I ever make.
Since making those 8 tabs I haven't really had time to work any more on the curtains as I've been busy with getting ready for Christmas (a few recipes coming soon!) and getting through some remodeling we're having done on the house (posts about that soon, too!). But, I promised my husband I would make the curtains my priority as soon as the holidays are over - and now I've said it on the internet so I'll have to keep my word.