My First Buttonhole!

Okay, actually maybe this wasn't my very first buttonhole EVER, maybe my first buttonhole was for my very first sewing project, a skirt. There I am, 10 years old in 1973. Not sure what the goofy look on my face was all about.

ANYWAY... so I worked a bit more on the curtains this morning. Anything to procrastinate and keep from working on the bookkeeping. I really have to get to it this weekend... or... maybe only the 1 hour's worth of bookkeeping needs to be done. But I really need to stop procrastinating in case my job decides to allow me to work one more day a week. Really could use the money!

I decided I definitely needed sashes to be able to tie back the curtains. Also, the top valance bar was hung lopsided (I futzed with the picture so it wouldn't look crooked). Probably because the curtains aren't perfect is the reason I couldn't sleep last night. I finally slept until 8:30am. I think I'll make myself a kefir shake this morning for breakfast. I digress. I rehung the bar but now I see that my curtains are lopsided, too.

Back to the title: Buttonholes. I feel like I got a lot of machine for $65. There is a setting to make automatic buttonholes. I guess this is standard issue for sewing machines, but it sure wasn't back when I was in my twenties. It feels like a stretch to follow the sewing machine manual because they are using all these terms that don't mean anything to me like, "the front bar tack will be sewn first, " and "attach buttonhole foot and push the outside frame back until the sliding insert is in the front."


HUH?

But I muddled my way through and say, making buttonholes is pretty fun!!

So here are the sashes themselves. Pretty simple. I had two squares leftover after I cut the panels for the bottom of the curtains, so I cut the squares in half, sewed them together, folded them lengthwise and sewed down the edge. Reversed the sash, then sewed the end together. Then sewed in the buttonhole and I also don't have a seam ripper tool, so I used a box cutter to cut the material. Now I see that I forgot the last step. Reinforcing the buttonhole with a Straight Stitch. I'd better do that. We seem to be hard on things in this household.

I decided against those cup holder things to hold the sashes. As I just said, we seem to be hard on things in this house. They would be pulling out of the wall within weeks, so I just used a long drywall screw.

Here's another picture of the curtains now, complete with sashes. See how you can see under the sink area? That is what the other set of curtains is for. I'm also going to paint underneath the top cupboards - the area that is white will become turquoise, as will the white alongside the window. But not this weekend.

And, I've decided! I want this to replace my old falling apart dish drainer (besides it is pine green and the drainer thing on the bottom is clear:


It sells for $29.99 from Target via Amazon.com. Amazon wants almost $40 after shipping and tax. I don't know if I want to spend THAT much, but I *do* have gift certificates worth that much left. Although I am tempted to buy a stainless steel dish drainer. They have one at Amazon also, for $50. Probably the shipping will be high. But it would last longer than these Rubbermaid ones seem to do. I have replaced mine twice since we've lived here, about four years.

Until next time.