This afternoon, I started a sewing project. I needed to shorten some drapes my husband bought while I was gone. Here’s what happened.
Lin Bought New Drapes—Wrong Length
When we first started furnishing our new home in Panamá, we began with drapes. There were no drapes on any windows, but none on the living room windows made us feel so vulnerable and exposed. We bought lovely green and gold ones and our landlord put them up for us. I thought we were done.
Then we realized we needed more because they didn’t completely cover the large window facing Vulcan Barú. The gap felt ugly and open again, exposed.
While I was gone in November to the states, Lin went to David shopping. He couldn’t find our original green and gold ones, but he found a beige one that worked. He texted me pictures of them choices, and I agreed with him on the beige ones, so he bought two panels to fill the space more evenly. When he got them home and hung, they were too long and drug the floor—4 inches longer than the others.
Larada’s Sewing Project Birthed
After listening to his dismay about his oversight of the length, I assured him I could fix them. See there’s a reason. I started sewing at nine years old in 4-H. When I was in high school, many of my friends and I made our own western pants—skin tight with yokes on our butts and down on the bottom of each leg—they were fantastic in our eyes. In my early adult life, I made all my clothes, but life got complicated when I divorced and went to the university, and they sewing stopped.
On occasion, I have returned to my sewing machine to do simple projects, because the deep seamstress knowledge was long gone.
Today Was the Day for Sewing
So today, my husband, Lin, and I began this project. First, we took the two panels of longer drapes off of the curtain rod. Then, I laid one panel on our bed, folding the top half up so I had the bottom smooth and even. After much discussion about how much to cut off, we decided to cut off 4 inches. So, I marked on the panel every couple inches with a marker so I would cut it evenly.
Lin worried I might cut our bedspread, so he helped me by hold the panel up. I did the cutting, and it worked.
Because that worked so smoothly, we cut the second panel immediatley.
The Borrowed Sewing Machine
I didn’t bring my sewing machine with me—we came with only six large suitcases, so there was no way. So, I borrowed one from a neighbor, Ruth Howell. She kindly lent me all of her sewing supplies too.
So, it took a while to find the power switch on the machine. The instructions are in Spanish, so that was not easy because I don’t know sewing vocabulary. My next task was putting thread on the bobbin which was fairly easy, I thought. Then, I threaded the sewing machine and the needle.
Part of the reason I gave up sewing recently—my eyesight and threading a needle. But this time I did really well.
First Stitches
So, I laid out the panel and started the hemming with turning up a ¼ inch hem to make the edge look good. When I began, the sewing machine sewed a few stitches and stopped totally. The bobbin side looked horrible with huge knots.
Then we began to wonder if the drape material was too heavy for the machine. After this debacle, we had almost decided to go to a seamstress in town tomorrow. That would be the easiest—I’m busy. I don’t need to be doing this.
Sewing & My Determination
But I couldn’t stop! I rethreaded the bobbin three or four times and nothing seemed to work. I used Google Translate and translated the instructions for threading the bobbin, but I had done it right. So I wondered if I had threaded the top part right. I looked more closely at the instructions and dove deeper into my memory. I realized I had missed a very important part.
Once, I did that and rethreaded the needle—easily again, I might say, the machine worked like a dream. Luckily, I got the 1/4 inch turn-up done on one panel.
Before we went any further, we decided to measure the green and gold drapes we bought initially. Both of us thought they were 84 inches long, so that’s why we cut off the 4 inches. To our surprise, they are 82 inches long, so I had to change the hem in the beige panels to four inches. I’ve pinned up one panel.
Final Decision
So, tomorrow I’m going to finish this project. The sewing machine took over our kitchen table, but I really want to do this. It stems from a saying my dad repeatedly shared with me my whole life, “Winners never quit, and quitters never win!” Even when it’s a sewing project like this.
What do you do when you face a task like this? Give up? Grit your teeth and jump in? Let me know.
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