Now a break from our regular quilty programming to bring you - - - - practical sewing.

Are you still here? Ok, honestly, do you ever find that, sewing being your hobby, you tend to neglect the functional sewing in your life? When a family member asks me to repair a broken strap or a new pair of pants needs hemming, I feel like hiding behind my sewing machine. Only that never works! It’s funny that a task that probably takes all of 5 or 10 minutes can feel like more work than weeks of quilt making, ha!

Remember the totally wrong-size curtains I bought for our new master bedroom? The purchased size was much, much too long and a smidge too narrow. The too-long part is an easy fix, but too narrow is more challenging, especially since the curtains hang from intimidating metal ring grommets.

Well, my friends, this weekend I went and done it. And naturally it was not as hard as I’d built up in my head, pfff. I simply cut off the extra length of each curtain, sewed the extra fabric together to make one long panel and added that panel alongside one original curtain.

Yes, that does mean that one of my curtains is wider than the other, but - shhhhhhhh! - no one will ever notice. The important thing is that they close properly now and look nice too.

After watching this video, I chose to work with easy plastic eyelet grommets. They weren’t expensive and the application was definitely beginner-friendly.

The kit came with a template for marking the grommet holes. After cutting out the fabric, you simple snap the grommet rings together. Poof, done!

The difference between the metal eyelet grommets on the original curtains and the plastic ones I’ve added is nearly undetectable. In this photo, the left two visible rings are plastic.

Now I can enjoy the view without feeling nagged by that waiting task. I find myself here many evenings. I’m mesmerized by the sun setting amongst ever-changing clouds over this quaint sea of gardens. It gives me a peaceful, pensive feeling.

Well, that’s one practical project off my list. Let’s hope there aren’t any others! After all, the quilts are waiting too, haha.