Drawing The Curtains

This month I have made one set of curtains for myself [for the spare bedroom] and shortened another pair for a friend. I thought it was worth mentioning some gadgets which really made the task a lot easier. Everybody knows that precision is the key thing – you need to cut straight, iron straight and hem straight!

I would not be without my Fiskars Scissors [over 40 years old now] and my Fiskars Sharpener. The latter was purchased in Spring 2013, and it is brilliant at really putting a sharp edge on my scissors. It was pricey [currently they are around £16] but it has certainly made a difference to cutting out fabric. All that wedding bunting was a breeze, with sharp scissors!

Then my steam generator iron – this is a Rowenta DG7140G0, bought over 7 years ago – I paid less than £50. It seemed a lot then – but similar ones are around £200 now. It makes ironing so much easier!

Years ago I would never have dreamed of drawing on my curtains with a ballpoint pen – but now I use a Frixion Pen for marking fabrics all the time. It is brilliant, and once you have finished, you just iron away the marks.

These pens, made by Pilot, work with Thermosensitive Technology – you can draw where you want to fold, cut or stitch, and the marks are good and clear – then, once heated to 65ºC they will disappear – so even a gentle iron will eradicate your marks.

These pens are quite inexpensive- I have worked in a couple of schools where they supply them to the pupils. That is because they have a friction eraser built into the top. Personally I am not sure that this is altogether a good idea – rubbing out wrong answers may not always help. When teaching maths, I prefer children to cross out their errors so I can see how they were thinking [frequently they had the right answer to start with, then doubted themselves] But school aside, they are excellent tools in the needleworker’s kit.

Any more curtains needing to be hung, drawn and shortened?