Curtain Sew-a-thon

My current sewing machine.

At the age of ten, I was allowed to sign up for Singer sewing lessons at a department store in Toledo. I wanted to take ballet and be a Girl Scout, but my Mom said, "I've already been through all that with your brothers, and they always lost interest halfway through...so NO!"

She never learned how to sew and wanted me to have skills. I made my first dress in teh fifth grade, and I continued to make many of my own clothes throughout high school. Oh, she sent me to charm school too, but its results, as you may know, are questionable.

Since then, however, I have only sewn by hand. I´ve repaired thick sailcloth while underway at sea on our South Pacific Adventures. I´ve made all kinds of curtains with needle and thread. But when I had to make ten pair for the "cuartos" we built off on the Periférico that are almost ready for habitation, I decided to break out the old machine.

I bought one of the old Singer machines that has been motorized. It is a very popular machine in these parts, but most of the locals use the basic foot pedal. My machine hadn't been used since Lynne came from Alaska and made me curtains, back in October of 2007. I called in a home service mechanic, and 140 pesos (ten bucks) and an hour later I was ready to roll.

I went down to Parisina, one of many mind-boggling fabric stores in el centro to seek out fabric. I dove into the giant pile of remnants on the floor, which all happened to be the size I needed for panels. I was pushed around and whacked in the head with purses, knocked to the floor a couple of times. But I knew that would happen so I went prepared mentally. I got them back by smiling and laughing as if they were all accidental hits, and before I knew it the same women were helping me find matches to the fabrics I had in hand. All in all it was not a bad fabric store experience, and I had enough fabric to make ten sets PLUS new curtains upstairs and in my office.

New sheer curtains in upstairs guest room.

Of course I can do no project without the help of the commando. You can see how helpful they are. One more project finished, now we wait for the workers on the construction project who have a mysterious FLU to finish the last details, and voilá! We will be slum lords!