First up... some drapes in our living room that were too short. I bought these new drapes after the curtain rod had been hung according to the length of other drapes. Instead of moving the rod, I decided I would sew a fabric trim onto the bottom. My mom was free on Tuesday so she offered to come over and take me to one of the fabric/trim stores she goes to. We found the perfect fabric for the curtains and trim we wanted to use on a bench (more on that later).
Curtains that were too short
When we picked out the fabric, I didn't fully think through what a challenge it would be to sew it. It was sheer with a striped texture to it and it easily frayed. My sewing was a little rusty, so I pulled out my sewing book and was reminded how to do a french seam. I practiced on a scrap piece of material and got everything measured out and cut just perfectly. It took me a full day to sew the fabric on four curtain panels. I was pretty grumpy by the end of it, but am sure I'd be quicker next time! I did enjoy getting to spread out upstairs and put my craft room to use for the first time. :)
The finished product
Living Room complete with new curtains, pillows, rug, and chairs
So, I mentioned my mom came over to help me shop and get trim for a bench. I've had this bench at my dining room table since my sophomore year in college. It's made it through five moves and over seven years, but the tassel trim on the bottom looked a little rough so we had ripped it off. It then hung off the ground too far and needed a new trim on it. My mom had pre-shopped for trim, so we picked the sample we liked best and went to purchase it when we got fabric for the curtains.
Sewing it on was the challenging part.... Oh how I wish there would have been another person home to video this! My mom pinned in onto the bench while I fired up the sewing machine and got rid of the cobwebs (both on the machine and in my head related to working it).
Dakota of course wanted to help and was in her face most of the time since she was on the floor. Mom was a trooper.
I don't know if you can get the full effect of this setup from the pictures, but since the part we were sewing the trim onto was attached to the bench we had to get creative. I put the sewing machine on a chair and sewed with my knee on the pedal instead of my foot while my mom held/slid/maneuvered the bench. It was quite interesting and challenging positioning for both of us. I whined and mom cheered us on. I'm glad she was there to push us on this one. I don't think I would have done it otherwise. It looks great though, so I'm glad we did!
The finished product
It looks like it was made that way all along doesn't it?
Another one of our projects since moving in was mirrors for all the bathrooms. I've shared with you before that none of the bathrooms had mirrors, towel bars/hand towel holders, toilet paper holders, or cabinet pulls/knobs. We got most of that purchased and installed when JW's dad came over to help awhile ago. We got a few of the mirrors picked out and hung too, except for the mirrors in our master bath. Wow, have those been a challenge! The space there is very tight and quite an unusually sized space apparently. We've spent a lot of hours shopping for the right mirror and have just been functioning without one for the whole time we've been in the house.
Until... about 3 hours before the party, on her way to our house early to help me arrange flowers, my mom stopped in a Tuesday Morning and found the perfect mirrors! She bought them, loaded them up, and she and JW got them hung less than an hour before our housewarming party started. Love it! :) Go mom!
Master Bath
Upstairs Bath
Downstairs Guest Bath
Our house is really feeling like home. We've gotten a lot of the bigger and more immediate projects on our list checked off, and it feels really good! I told JW that we need to have a party every quarter so that we have the motivation to knock some things out and get the house in tip-top shape. We feel so blessed that we get to call this house our home.
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