Ahem! It’s sew easy.

Hubby is suffering from shock.
So much so, he has had to go and lie down as he came over all faint like. It started the day before yesterday. We went into town and I purchased two meters of 5mm elastic. Back at the boat, we measured my wrists, and tied two loops of elastic to fit. I then sewed them into the sleeves of my jumper. Yes, you did read correctly, but just to confirm that, I’ll repeat it: I sewed them into the sleeves of my jumper.

This is a miraculous event worthy of front page news in the media as I hate sewing.
But one thing I find really annoying is when the cuffs of my jumpers become so baggy, they do not stay put when I push them up, and are forever flopping over my hands. This particular jumper is one Mum knitted for me years ago. I always used to wear it at Christmas because it’s red and glittery and has snowflakes on it.
However, it is one of only two I have now, and as the other is blue (again knitted by Mum) and shrinks every time I wash and tumble dry it, well, Christmas is with me all the time at the moment.

This week,  we are spending a few days with our friend as he has another hospital appointment tomorrow, and we’ve brought the sewing machine with us this time. Several visits ago, we noticed his curtains were falling off their tracks, and offered to fix them for him. He wasn’t too keen on the idea, but I guess we wore him down as he eventually agreed, so here we are.

No, it was not me who used it, but I did end up doing something else with a needle and thread.
As things turned out, our friend had had a little accident and caught the hem of one curtain on the radiator. Not only did it unravel, but the material also tore.
Hubby used the machine to re-attach the header tape and redo the hem, but I had the job of sewing the torn material by hand.

It wasn’t a large tear, but too big to just sew the sides together, so I rummaged around in our friend’s sewing box, and found some beige coloured ribbon. It was about a quarter of an inch wide, just enough to form a suitable patch, and as it would be on the bottom of the curtain and on the side facing the wall, it wouldn’t show.
OK, the curtains are green (honest), and the thread we had to hand was totally the wrong shade, but between us we did the job, and I have to admit, I am rather pleased with my handiwork.
I even managed to ‘darn’ a smaller tear with the cotton and unless you look at the inside of the curtain, you can’t see my stitches.

Patch and darn (looks a bit like a bandaid!) and view from the ‘other side’.

Hubby has also repaired three other curtains, and addressed a problem with the net curtain track in the lounge which our friend had poked through a makeshift hole and attached with what looked like a straightened paper clip and a nail. Hubby found a box in the garage with some proper hanging hooks in it and took the track down to examine it. It was of an extending design, and not only had our friend managed to twist it, but he had also bent it, so it was no wonder it wouldn’t stay up.

We’ve teased him that he won’t know himself now that his curtains all hang nicely, and even better, slide properly on their tracks because Hubby coated them with beeswax polish. In turn, our friend has offered to make it known how good we are at haberdashery repairs, and suggested perhaps we should go into business.

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