Kittens make it curtains for curtains

I had some padded curtains in my bedroom that I got years ago at an Oxfam shop. Getting 2 14-week old rescue kittens nearly 3 years ago meant they were badly ripped. They semed to have calmed down so I thought I would get some replacement curtains. I don't go for expensive curtains, especially as the cats might decide to dig their claws into the new pair, but I found some gold ones in a catalogue (my bedroom is dark wood with gold/golden yellow). The curtains are very thin material with very thin linings so they are letting in a bit more light than the old pair, even allowing for the old pair's missing stuffing! The catalogue also sold thermal linings, but black-out, thermal linings. I like to open one eye and tell whether I can roll over and go back to sleep or doze until the alarm goes (autumn and spring) or be able to tell at a glance at the clock if there is time to roll over and go back to sleep even though it is already light without waking properly (summer). When I did a thermal lining curtain workshop with Transition Leytonstone last year I made black-out, thermal linings for the spare room curtains as the window is not far away from a street lamp. At New Year I warned a friend that they were black-out linings but the significance didn't sink in and she would have overslept if I hadn't been up and about watching the time! Hopefully I will see Jan, who ran the curtain lining workshop, at a Transition Leytonstone even and she will have some thermal curtain linings I can buy.

New Year

I did mention to Hilda, the friend staying with me over Christmas, that the thermal linings of the curtains in the spare bedroom were also blackout ones, However she hadn't appreciated the significance of this.

After seeing in the New Year we'd agreed that we'd get up about 8.30. I was up a few minutes after that, had my shower and hairwash, did the washing up, made an apple crumble (using the spiced apples another friend had made for my Christmas oresent) so it was ready for the oven, brought in some logs from the log pile, and she still hadn't appeared.

I called her - her room was so dark she hadn't realised the time (nearly 10 am)!

We did get our walk, around Hollow Ponds on the edge of Epping Forest, before home for leek, onions and mushrooms on toast and the apple crumble.

By the time she left for the bus just after 2 pm it had started to rain and by mid afternoon was raining heavily.

I'm now trying to get the wood burning stove to light. It seems to be taking my 3 goes most evenings this year!

Thermal curtain linings

This evening I've been using my new sewing machine to sew my blackout thermal linings for my spare bedroom curtains. I've just got the hems to do which I will pin while watching TV tonight.

Sewing machine for curtain linings

I haven't had a working sewing machine for years, but I have two thermal curtain linings to turn in at the sides, hem, and sewing tape onto which would take ages and ages of TV-watching to get sewn. I also need to clear up. I have a meeting in the dining room on 4 June, the boiler being replaced in the bedroom on 7 & 8 June, and the wood burning stove being checked and the chimney swept in the sitting room on the 7 June. Two curtains and two thermal linings are taking a lot of room on the spare room bed which I need for stuff from the bedroom so the plumber can move!

So today I bought a small (fuchsia-coloured!) sewing machine for £59 from John Lewis.

I only trimmed the late summer canes of the autumn raspberries to get an early crop, and picked my first this morning!

,

Thermal lined curtains and the worm and the caterpillar

I replaced my old door with a solid wood one. I wish I hadn't. The panels have split leaving space you can see daylight through! My handyman said he could fill the gaps, but it could be as little as a fortnight before the wood moves and I have the same problem.

So delighted when Transition Leytonstone put on a workshop for putting thermal linings in curtains. This afternoon I made a separate lining (that you hook on to the curtain). As the old curtain I use as a door curtain had only a thing strip allowing only one row of hooks, I have started putting curtain tape on that.

We were using old hand sewing machines that Roger from Forest Recycling Project renovates. It reminded me of my childhood where when my mother was sewing sheets sides to middle,  I would be turning the handle while my mother guided the sheets.

I also brought blackout, thermal linings for the spare bedroom curtains.

This morning when I emptied an old pot into a raised bed so I could fill it with fresh soil and plant a tomato in it. I found it the soil a worm in a knot. I carefully untangled it and put it on some damp soil. It was very flabby so I hope it had enough strength the feed.

I told this story to Jan Ashford who was leading the curtain lining workshop. She said she once had some empty window boxes on her windowsill fill with water. She found a little caterpillar marooned in the window box, so she rescued it to put it on the nearest plant, a russian vine. The little thing was so hungry it started eating before it left her finger!