Crafty

The closets in our new house are double sliding door closets. This is the same kind of closet doors that was in the girls bedrooms at the old house. Except at the old house the doors were light and slid easily. These doors are heavy and require real pushing to get them to move. Consequently, pinched and smashed fingers are not uncommon.

We decided to take down the sliding doors and put up curtains instead. For Roxy's closet we just used a white fabric shower curtain (clean and almost new) that we already had on hand. It's a bit short, but it was our favorite price of free, plus Roxy doesn't care at all. Done.

I found this super cute flamingo fabric for Pippa's room. And I decided to sew curtains with said flamingo fabric. Because really, sewing four straight lines is totally a perfect beginner project.

I'm not crafty. The last thing I sewed was a backpack in home ec in 7th grade. But there have been many times the last 5 years when I wished I had a sewing machine - not to do like serious sewing, but just to quickly do something. Like sewing Christmas stockings for our family (borrowed a sewing machine) or making curtains for the playroom in the old house (used double sided tape - these curtains are now the window curtains in Roxy's room) or a few other things. Anyway, I bought a cheap sewing machine online and off I went!

Well, not quite. When I finally had time to sew them I pulled the fabric out and the girl at the fabric counter had shorted me by over 1 yard! I knew I had told her the right measurements (because I measured and calculated it literally 5 times). I didn't actually watch her measure or cut the fabric because I was trying to keep track of Roxy and Pippa. I called my mom and asked how hard it would be to add a ruffle or something at the bottom and she told me to take the fabric back and ask them to re-cut it correctly. So I did. And they did. Thanks, mom!

I knew going into this that these would not be perfect curtains. I'm a beginner and I should let myself be a beginner (and probably stay a beginner - like I mentioned I don't want to be a serious sewer or crafter). Plus, it's going in a three year old's room. She's not going to notice or say something if it's not perfect. One time a really crafty woman in our old ward said something like, "I don't try to make it perfect. If I spent forever making it perfect then when it's done I notice one small thing that's slightly off I would want to scream. So on most things I just do a mostly good job and then I'm happy with the outcome." Some of the best advice I've ever received.

After all that talking here is how they turned out:

I think it would have looked slightly better if we let them touch all the way to the floor, but we hung them just above the floor so the girls couldn't step on them at all.

The girls with the dowls that we used to hang the curtains. They look like little ninjas or something. And they wielded the dowls like little ninjas, too!

And this one just because it's fun and taken the same day (also, the same day as the flower crown).