No-Sew Drapes

alternately titled: "Things you can do with your Straight Iron"

Our house has an 8'x5' picture window at the stair landing. For Christmas, I knew it needed to be dressed, so on Black Friday, this crazy lady (pointing finger at self) went to JoAnn and waited in too many long lines for the perfect fabric. (Hey, no judging: 8 yards of quality fabric = $$$).

I should also mention that J's Birthday was soon after my mini-shopping spree and he received a Little Giant. Needless to say he was excited, and my drapes got hung that night....

...before I'd had the chance to hem and press them. Oh well, at least they got hung! There is no way those things are getting pressed now, but I had to figure out how to hem them (the edges were badly frayed). I was NOT going to hand sew them and my machine was out of the question.

Have you all met Sherry? Well, she keeps making curtains and bed skirts that are no-sew. I kept reading her posts and thinking "pshaw! I have a machine, I'll hem the 'right' way." Boy, was I ever wrong! Here's to you Sherry, for showing me the error of my ways!

Gather up your supplies:

You'll need iron-on hem tape, scissors, and an iron. Because my drape was already hung, a standard iron wouldn't work, so I got creative. 

Place hem tape along the edge of your project and fold the fabric and tape up into a hem. Iron with medium heat and NO steam. DO NOT touch the hem tape directly to your iron. The glue will melt onto your iron and ruin it. If you're like me and using a straight iron, be sure to wipe off the plates (once cool) before using in your hair. My iron took on a bit of the red dye in the fabric. 

My finished, clean-line hem!

The final product shown from the top of the stairs.

My Quilt

September was National Sewing Month according to Joann's. I decided to partake and challenge myself to a quilt. Michelle posted a quilt she'd made for a niece and I loved the design/pattern. So I used her tutorial as well as the help of other bloggers and I now have a finished product.

First, I invested in the Olfa Deluxe Ergonomic rotary cutter plus the pinking blade, this tool alone made cutting all those squares so easy, and NO edges frayed.

I did a lot of math and bought enough fabric to make a double size quilt, then I cut squares, stitched, and cut again based on Michelle's instructions. Then I laid all the squares out in the pattern I desired for my quilt top and sewed them all together.

With the top put together, it was time to get some batting and back the quilt. Thank goodness for Pinterest! I found this pin to Diary of A Quilter's Beginning Quilting Series. The Batting 101, Intro to Quilting 101, Machine Quilt Binding 101, and Bias Binding 101 were EXTREMELY helpful!

I laid out and taped the backing, placed the batting over it, and rolled the top out so that all layers were smooth. I then pinned them all together using dozens of long straight pins. I machine quilted using the above-mentioned tutorial and instructions in my sewing machine's manual. Quilting is tough, but with a lot of patience, it can be done!

Notice that I had help quilting.

For the binding, I purchased Wright's Double Fold Bias Tape: Quilt Binding. I then followed a combination of found tutorials. This tutorial was the simplest and most helpful, however I used tips from this one to join the bias tape at seams (also use it if you want rounded corners).

Happy quilting!

Randoms

I learned how to knit on Saturday morning. There's a lady at church who is starting a group called "With Loving Hands." It is a place to learn how to knit and crochet, fellowship, and create projects for people in need. So far I'm loving it. My yarn is a very pretty peach color.

I broke down and bought some skinny jeans. I am a believer! (sort-of!) I found my old horseback riding boots and thought that they looked a lot like the boots currently out for the season, so I cleaned 'em up with some saddle soap and black shoe polish and they practically glow! Because they actually are riding boots, they are fairly tight and I need boot pulls to get them on (they have sewn in pull tabs), and a boot jack to get them off. Luckily I found those stored with the boots. Oh yes, because of the boot's tightness I needed tight pants to wear them with. I found some really cute Miley Cyrus ones on clearance for $10 at Walmart. I can't find the actual pants online, sorry. They are actually really well constructed and comfortable, which surprised me. 

Moses has been working out lately. Ya know, besides chasing the bugs that are starting to find their way inside, and attacking my houseplant, he's decided that some good old fashioned weight lifting is going to get the ladies...

My Grandma is having (another) skin cancer surgically removed from her face tomorrow. I'm heading out soon to be with her for the procedure. It's done in the office, and isn't too invasive, but it's scary none-the-less, so I'll be right beside her the whole time. Nurse Erica's Warning: wear your daily sunscreen of at least SPF 15 (most daily moisturizers contain it) on your face. The skin cancer is so not worth it. My Grandma's nose is actually now totally comprised of skin that was originally grown behind her ears...I think she's had 7 skin grafts to her nose now. Skin cancer isn't pretty, which renders your tan ugly, in my humble opinion...