The final curtain

I know I probably shouldn't say this, but I really hope that the title of this post is true!

For those of you have been faithful followers of this (rather intermittent) blogger (and thank you if you are!), you will know all about my bumpy road to curtaining our home (is there such a verb as curtaining?!).  It has involved a huge amount of fabric, miles and miles of thread, aching knees and back and (literally) a substantial amount of blood, sweat and tears.  Not to mention an inordinate amount of patience on DH's part!

I hope that you are sitting down as you read this next part, because I have made the final* pair of curtains!!!!

I have been keeping fairly quiet about them I admit.  Partially because I'm so sick of making curtains, but also because we've had quite a big family event behind it all, which I didn't want to say too much about. It still isn't imminent, but at least the curtains are up now.

They should have been a quick and easy pair to make as the window involved is soooo much smaller than the others I've blogged about.  As ever, though, it all took longer than I'd hoped.  I didn't order enough fabric to start with (a bit of a boo-boo to say the least) and then I ran out of thread.  After getting more supplies and starting the next stage, the sewing machine decided to go on the blink!  To be fair to it, though, I've had it (or I think my parents would say, we've had it) for over 20 years and it hasn't been serviced once (shame on us), so it has done brilliantly to last this long.

So, all in all, my final (hopefully) foray into curtain making hasn't been the smoothest.  With all the experience I've had, you'd think I'd have perfected it by now though, wouldn't you!?!  As ever, I've decided to try something new again - blackout lining this time - and it is a bit weird to sew with.  I was a bit concerned that the stiffness of the lining would put me off them now they're hanging as it doesn't hang as nicely as 'normal' lining, but it isn't as bad as I expected.  That is one bonus of worrying yourself silly for months about something - it can NEVER be as bad as you expect! ;-)

Et voilà!

*At least, the final pair for a VERY VERY long time.

Today's sewing room

Revamping my 'craft' room

For years I have dreamt of having a dedicated sewing/craft room, but it hasn't materialised.  Mainly because in the past I haven't had the space.  So my sewing gear etc has been stashed in wardrobes, cupboards, bookshelves, trunks ... and invariably moved around as the space demanded.

Now we have a lovely spacious house, but still I haven't had a dedicated room and again my sewing stuff has been spread over various parts of the house - attic, cellar, spare room, living room cupboard, trunk and various bags.  However, we've had a spare room that has become a bit of a dumping ground as it hasn't a specific use and this has been annoying us both.  It has become home to the books that don't fit onto the shelves in the living room, our spare desk, our (now) disused filing cabinet, items I intend to sell on Ebay or similar, my German teaching supplies, photo albums (again, that don't fit on the living room shelves), and some of my craft gear.

Recently I've been using the room a lot more as my sewing room (for my humungous task of the largest curtains in Britain) and, well, frankly, I've had enough of the shambles.  It is high time that the room had some sort of function and 'prettified' (and that we tidied things up a bit more!). So, over a couple of weekends, and with a bit of help from DM and DF and a sneaky trip to Ikea, it has changed from this...

I know - a mess or what?

to this ....

A nice cosy sewing or reading corner

A dedicated sewing space that can be turned at right
angles to the wall for bigger projects.

The perfect 'door plate' for my new-look room

It is still a bit more tidying to do and it is still a little bare and spartan, but adorning the top of the cupboard with some of my travel souvenirs and adding a couple of shelves in the alcove above the trunk has freed up space on the bookshelves (which have had yet another temporary reprieve!  Not my favourite of DH's contributions to our household), so they a) look tidier and more attractive and b) provide space for stuff that has been cluttering up other spaces.  I've also been able to display a few more of my works on the walls too.

One day we might add a rug and change the curtains, but for now, at least it's a step in the right direction!