This is sew not me

We’ve been into town today on the hunt for fabric to make curtains for the boat for the winter months.
We measured up, and there is a sewing service at the local launderette, so I walked the dog there over the weekend to get advice and some idea of prices.
We want to cover 3 windows that are about a meter square, and the bow door which is 1.8m across though we shall have the same drop.
I nearly fell over when the (very nice) lady said that her labour charges would be £20 ($32) PER CURTAIN, and we would be expected to supply the fabric, tapes and cottons for the job (which I had been prepared for). Ouch.

Plan B.
Having been told we would need about 8 meters of fabric, we did some investigating on the internet and off we went this morning.
We had decided on an unpatterned fabric, and the cheapest we could find was £8 ($14) a meter, but it wasn’t very thick and would have to be lined, at a further cost of £6 ($10) a meter.
We did however find the heading tape required at 50p a meter, so bought that.
It was a start.

Moving on.
We’d seen some throwover covers that may have been suitable and they were £20 each. We needed three so again we were up to £60 plus, however, they weren’t quite wide enough whichever way we used them, so we had to think again.
I thought I’d found the answer when I discovered a whole rack of ready made small curtains which would have been perfect. Just one itsy bitsy probelm, they were all display samples, and so no two were a pair, let alone 3 small pairs and one larger one.

Tentative Plan C then was to buy a cheap set of ready mades and cut them off.
Just a fleeting thought as they were £20 a pair, and we couldn’t make one pair make 2, if you see what I mean.

Having decided £20 must be the most popular figure for anything we want these days, we decided to think about how we were going to hang them.
Curtain track (large area) and aluminium tubing (other 3) fitted the bill, so that was the easy part. Total cost more than £20 but we were getting there.

Finally, Plan D was forged as Hubby remembered seeing large towels for a fiver, and provided we could get 5 the same (3 would each make a pair of curtains for the smaller windows, and the other 2 would be a perfect fit for the bow door), our ‘fabric’ issue was resolved.
Three shops later, we came out with a large bag of identical towels for the princely sum of £24.50 ($40).

I have mentioned before that Hubby is useful.
So useful in fact, that HE will be the one making the curtains, not me.
I hate sewing, and would rather go out and buy a new shirt than sew a button on, but he enjoys it, and is looking forward to getting the machine out and making a start.
I’m toying with the idea of visiting my Mum for the day.

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