Cautionary Tale

Last summer I painted Mimi's room. I then began looking for new drapes that coordinated with her color scheme and had planned on making her a quilt. I kept carrying the paint swatches around in my purse and would compare the colors to different items. In December I found some aquamarine curtains at Target and they had the insulated lining. These would help with the heat and cold air as well as block the light. Energy efficient curtains!!

I bought one drape and brought it home. It matched well with the colors on her wall so I bought two more. Now I thought they were a bit plain and after spending years watching HGTV; I thought I could easily jazz them up. In January I bought a couple of yards of the inspirational cotton fabric we used to select our paint colors. This fabric could then be used as trim on the curtains and blocks for the quilt I would make.

January brought costume making for Mimi's dance competitions. Then in March it was time to coordinated the sewing of and help sew Spring Concert costumes for the children at the dance studio. Oh yea, I had a small break in February from ballet costume sewing and sewed circus costumes for the annual school circus.

So family sewing was pushed aside until the summer. In my home cleaning and purging frenzy this summer, I found the shopping bag with the drapes in the linen closet. I pulled them out and found the inspirational fabric in my rubber maid tub of quilting fabric. I then took a pause and organized my fabric tub and keepsake T-shirts that may one day be used in some quilts. At this point I realized I had some time sensitive deadlines such as a gift for a person who was moving onto another job and getting two wedding quilt tops and backings to the woman who does the machine quilt stitching. I need the quilts back well before the wedding so I can finish the last step in the process.

Finally this weekend I was ready to finish the curtain project thus getting Mimi's room one step closer to completion. I decided to place the trim the length of both sides of each curtain panel. I then determined the width of the trim and added an inch for seam allowances. I checked the length of the curtains so I'd know how long to make the trim. I needed to piece the trim as each cut strip was not long enough by itself to fit the length of the curtain panels.

Now I've seen Vern, Carter, Genevieve, etc. add pizazz to plain old curtains by adding trim to them. Actually they probably come up with the idea and materials and some assistant does the work. Whoever does it makes it seem easy. I'm here to tell you while it may be "easy" it takes a long time to finish.

I turned under both sides of the trim. Ironed the sides down, lined the trim up just so on the curtains so it would not be crooked, and then sewed. It took me two days to trim three curtain panels. I burned the tips of a few fingers ironing and bled a bit as I stabbed myself numerous times while pinning the trim. Now that I'm finished, I think they look cute but I'm not sure I couldn't have lived without the trim. I keep looking at them trying to convince myself that they were worth the work. I'm not there yet.

So here is the caution: Things may appear simple, easy, and fast in HGTV land while viewing them from the comfort of home, replicating them at home is different story. They need one of those don't try this at home unless you are an accomplished designer disclaimers at the end of each show.

I'll post pictures of the room once I hang the drapes, finished painting the shelves for the wall, and get her room cleaned again. It will be before the end of summer.