You're looking at Sewing
Curtains for the Apartment
··· Sep 30 2010 · By ···
One of the cool things about moving into a new place is that you get a chance to decorate that place to make it fit your personality and sense of style.
We are currently renting a place, and like a lot of rentals, things in the apartment are pretty plain. White walls, grey carpeting, and horizontal blinds. So D and I decided that it might be nice to have a little color. A good way to do that is by putting up some curtains.
Now I don’t know how many of you out there have gone out buying curtains lately but they are pretty pricey, and mostly made in China. So knowing that I have a nice sewing machine, and some fabric and thread, I set out to put up some privacy curtains around Dorothy’s work area. These curtains are really just half window blinds, that still let us see out of the top of the windows, while keeping the views from below blocked at night.
So I decided that hanging them from regular curtain rods is boring, and ugly, so D and I went to our local hardware store, Jackson’s, and got some 1/16” cable, and some grommets attach to the curtains and slide onto the cable.
Next I set out to measure how much fabric I would need, gathered it all up, and threw it into the old sewing machine. It really doesn’t take too long to get some simple rectangular fabric panels sewn together. The hard part is getting the seams sewn in straight.
Well, I got it all together, and realized that the front fabric measurement was taken from an earlier window measurement, where we had the top of the curtain 8” or so shorter. So I had to improvise, and what I came up with was to bring the longer backing fabric, and fold it at the bottom and come up the front, like a big off white cuff. It actually looks pretty good. So we got those hung, and are now moving on the next phase, the front room window panels. Let the sewing commence.
Dorothy Says: I love the curtains! They are cheery and totally original, and make me feel cozy and private after dark. And, when we’re having a Marin heat wave (like last week) and it’s 90+ degrees, they help keep it cool during the day while still letting light filter through!
Raga and Muffin
··· Jul 18 2010 · By ···
It is always better to make something as a gift, than to simply go to the store and buy a manufactured something or other, made in a land far far away, with no connection to you or the giftee. In this instance Dorothy and I decided that we wanted to make a couple of gifts for our friend’s two daughters, one who we know, and one newly born who we would get to meet for the first time. So we hauled the sewing machine out and got into the fabric box and got our supplies. For these gifts, we were going to make a couple of stuffed animal toys.
Dorothy decided to make a little doll out of an old argyle sock, a cat owl sort of thing (inspired by our newest owl friend.) She had some yarn, some velvet, and the sock. So she got to work making some ears, a set of wings, a tail and finally a face with some eyes and a cute nose and whiskers.
We thought about how to best fill it but nothing was really making sense, then something hit us, why not a simple puppet? So Raga was born. A half cat half owl half sock kind of friend. The perfect thing to play puppet with a 6 month old little girl.
I went the full on stuffed creature route. I quickly sketched out what sort of thing I wanted to make, then transferred that idea onto some paper to use as a pattern for the body, arms, and legs. I scoped out some velvet fabric, some funny puffy fabric for the eyes and some more velvet for the mouth, and went to work cutting, pinning and sewing. You need to put the face on first, so that’s how I worked, sewing and over sewing around the 4 pieces that made up the face. then I put it together inside out, and sewed most of the way around, leaving an opening big enough to flip it around, and stuff it through.
We picked up a bunch of cotton batting at the fabric store, so Dorothy cut some of it down into strips, and I stuffed them into the little body, filling out the arms, and legs, then the main body. When it was all packed in, I threw a quick stitch across the opening and. Poof, meet Muffin.
In all, it took us maybe 4 hours to put together the idea, lay out the plan and make a couple of one of a kind toys for some very good friends.
What kind of unique stuff do you like to make for gifts?
Dorothy’s notes:
- We started working on Raga and Muffin after dinner on Friday evening, at about 10PM, and they were officially born at 3AM the next morning. It was a lot of fun to collaborate and craft together and we plan to make it a much more regular activity here on D Street.
- A lot of love went into those little guys and when we got home from our visit Saturday night we actually missed them! Funny how an inanimate object can be infused with spirit. One of the many cool aspects of creating with your hands, and heart.