And now for something completely different...

Y'all may have noticed that I do not do home dec sewing, and I seldom sew for anyone other than my family, but sometimes a good enough cause comes along and I am convinced.

Also, this was really easy. Myra's preschool recently acquired a puppet theatre. It is really lovely and nicely made, but came without a curtain or curtain rod. I took a few measurements on Thursday (the last day of their school week) and whipped this up over the weekend with the help of Mitch, who cut down and sanded the dowel we used for a curtain rod.

I decided to make it out of two different fabrics, so that it would be easy for the kids to tell the "front" from the "back". It's fully reversible though, one side of a blue poly woven shot with silver lurex threads, and the other side is black poly satin. They can choose which side they like best for the front.

Both fabrics were very lightweight, so they drape nicely and push to the side easily for performances, but they needed a bit of weight, so I borrowed a trick from the House of Chanel and added a chain weight, which I sandwiched between the two fabrics so that it wouldn't be visible. It does hold the curtain in place nicely, without adversely affecting the drape.

Well, it was a big hit with Myra! I hope the other kids like it as well.

Stars...

I usually sew clothing, and occasionally a baby carrier, but when we were getting ready for Myra's arrival, and moving she and Logan into the "big" room I realized that boring blue curtains were just not going to cut it for the little prince and wee princess. The curtains that came with the house were blue twill, obviously home sewn by a seamstress that is still learning, but they do keep out the sun, so I decided to just work with what I had. Since Logan's room had a bit of a dragon theme, and Myra's was all about princesses, I thought a castle would be a fun melding of the two, so that's where I started. I cut out big giant battlements from some sturdy twill and appliqued them onto the bottom two thirds of the curtain, then added stars and a moon to the upper two thirds. This was definitely the biggest applique job I've ever done and I did learn a few things. For the castles, I didn't interface at all, since the fabric was already so thick. That worked fine, and I think that the curtains have a nice drape as a result. The stars and moon were a thin broadcloth left over from another project. I attached them with stitch witchery. This was a bad plan. Should have used heat and bond or just interfaced them, but I didn't want any extra stiffness. Oh well, live and learn. They turned out really cute, and Logan loves them. When he looks up from his bed, he can always see the stars!
Don't they have a pretty "glow" with the sun behind them?
Another thing I learned is that my sewing machine is not a fan of Dual Duty thread. It kept skipping stitches and stripping the thread - even with a larger eye needle. Once I went and got some Gutermann, all was well.Sleep well!