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I made curtains! Victor is not shown to scale here. He’s about three feet closer to me than the curtains.

When I first started learning to sew, one of my friends said, “You know, you won’t save any money sewing.” Well, that’s debatable. Custom-made anything is expensive. It deserves to be! But, sewing curtains is one of the areas where you’re almost always going to save money by doing it yourself, no matter how simple or complex the window treatment.

We wanted blackout-lined curtains. I’d never sewn blackout fabric or lined curtains before, so I ordered a small sample of fabric and made a test run in plain muslin. I learned a lot from my test run! Mainly, if you want rod-pocket curtains (meaning, there’s no header or pleating tape), sew the rod pocket last. If you wait and sew the side seams last, you won’t be able to put the curtains on the rod!

I read a whole stack of my sewing books, and I also picked up Susan Woodcock‘s Singer Sewing Custom Curtains, Shades, and Top Treatments from my local library. She also has a few classes on Bluprint that I found very helpful. (Full disclosure: I used to work for the company that published Susan’s book and I’m a Bluprint instructor. I’m not getting paid to endorse Susan. I just think she’s great!)

I suspect it hasn’t been available to home sewists for very long, but part of my seeming obsession with Susan is she’s the only source I could find who really discussed blackout fabric.

It’s a bit tricky to work with. You see, it’s not really a fabric in the normal sense, but more a fabric that has been coated in a very thin foam. In some ways, it sews like leather, but it is also extremely stable and doesn’t stretch or give at all, really.

I couldn’t even get it to stitch well, at first! It would be fine for a few inches, then stitches would start skipping. I tried a leather needle. I tried a denim needle. Nothing seemed to work.

In the end, I went where I should have gone in the first place: the manufacturer’s website. Here are the tips I gleaned from there, from Susan, and from my own experience:

1) Do not use pins. The hole marks will show forever. I used wonder clips.

2) Use a teflon needle.

3) Use a long stitch length. I used the longest one my machine would make (6 stitches/inch).

4) Manage the weight of the fabric with care. Hauling this stuff around isn’t a mean feat! I was working in my guest bedroom, so when I was sewing, I could rest the weight of the part I wasn’t sewing on the bed. I had to build in time to fold up the pieces when I finished each session so that they wouldn’t wrinkle.

5) Since the blackout lining is so stable, you may want to stabilize the main curtain fabric. Otherwise, it can be a challenge to make sure the edges you cut to the same length stay the same length, especially when you can’t pin! Even a line of stay stitching may save you some frustration.

6) Pattern match from the right side using a double-sided fusible tape. Susan covers this method very well in her book. It worked like a charm.

7) I found the easiest way to cut both my main and lining fabrics was to mark where I wanted to cut with a ruler and square, then cut with shears. I’m normally #teamrotarycutter, but in this case, I think it would have been harder to keep accurate. Again, I was working on a guest bed and not on a proper cutting table, so you may have a different experience.

8) This is actually advice from my grandmother Eulalia. Choose a fabric that you LOVE! That will get you through any rough spots you have with the project.

Anyway, here are more photos of my curtains. I couldn’t love them more. I can’t get the color to reproduce well. Imagine a very light indigo on a very dark indigo background.

A few months ago, Lara spiffed up one of her vintage sewing machines with new rubber leg cushions.

The cushions on my 1960’s Singer had deteriorated and flattened over the years, to the point where I had to pry the bottom of the machine off of them to get to some of the oiling points. This was annoying. Even more annoying, the machine was basically resting on the screws that hold on the cushions, so I was getting a little shimmy from the machine when I ran it at high speeds. Those cushions have a function (damping vibrations), and these more-than-50-year-old cushions were unable to do that job anymore. This machine is very fast, so this was A Problem.

I added replacement rubber leg cushions to my most recent order with Sewing Parts Online at https://www.sewingpartsonline.com/ (not affiliated, but I have been a happy customer of theirs). All together, the four feet were less than $15.

The parts sat in my sewing basket for about a month, then this weekend I decided it was Time To Do This Very Easy Thing.

I was so confident that the old cushions would pop right off, I didn’t even lay a towel down on the table. I rested my machine on its side, then unscrewed the little nut that holds the base together and pried off the base. I unscrewed the first leg’s attachment point and carefully put the screw aside.

Then this happened.

 

The old, rotten rubber just tore in half in my fingers. The years of compression and general advance of time had made the rubber stiff, sticky, and friable!

Choice words were said.

I took a breath and texted Lara and a few of my friends. My friend offered his dental tools to help extract the old feet, but I was in too much of a panic even to go to his house and get them.

I was so worried I had messed up this machine, which has sentimental value as a wedding present from my husband’s grandmother on top of its value as The Machine That Helped Me Learn To Enjoy Sewing.

Lara advised me to make a cup of tea and post to a Facebook group we are both on for Vintage sewing machines. The suggestions and commiserations promptly poured in. Of the many ideas, the one that did not require new equipment was, “Dump a lot of sewing machine oil on it, then run a hair dryer on it, and pry it out with a blunt tool.”

Honestly, on these Vintage machine groups, I’ve yet to see someone mention that they REGRET trying that first.

So, I carefully oiled all four feet with a cheap paintbrush, then let it sit for a few hours on a towel while I took my daughter to her afternoon play date.

I got home, found my oft-ignored hair dryer (which may be nearing Vintage status itself…I think my mom bought it for me in the very early 1990’s), and set a timer. Three minutes of steady heat per foot got me the result I wanted. This time I expected them to crumble and put down some paper towels.

 

None of the feet got out in one piece, but they all came out eventually!

The new cushions installed easily, and now my machine runs rock-solid, even at speed.

This weekend’s lesson: Stay Calm and Get the Hair Dryer.

 

We love a good machine-sewn project as much as the next person (we use five sewing machines between us!), but sometimes hand sewing is best for finishing, mending, or for special projects. Using the right needle is ⅓ of the battle in using quality materials for your hand work.

We have a theory that a lot of people who “hate to hand sew” haven’t used the right hand needles for them or their task.  If shoes came in one size, everyone outside of that size wouldn’t like shoes very much. Needle length/ type should match the person’s hand size and what they are trying to do.

We currently carry two brands of needles: Sajou and Hiroshima.

Both Sajou and Hiroshima needles are very high quality even though they come from different manufacturing traditions. Sajou needles are made in France by a firm that began in the 1830’s.  They are packaged in cardboard books printed with designs from the 1830’s- 1930’s. The books protect the needles during shipping and in your sewing basket, and make it easy to find the one you want to use. If you practice historical sewing from the 1830’s forward, Sajou is a good choice if you want your sewing kit to have an era-specific look (or if you just love cats, the Eiffel Tower, or any one of the other adorable designs that Sajou produces).

Hiroshima Needles have been made in Japan for more than 300 years by a firm that currently produces about 90% of the needles and pins made in Japan.  Sometimes sold under the Tulip brand name, they are packaged in a plastic tube closed with a cork. This protects the needles and is a sturdy, reliable needle case, but can make pulling the right one from an assortment a good reason to have a magnet handy!

For needles of the same size and type (the two brands produce speciality needles that do not entirely overlap), here is how they compare.

	Sajou	Hiroshima
Eye	Slightly smaller and rounder, with a larger landing area	Slightly larger and longer, with a smaller landing area
Polishing	All are smoothly polished	Most types are polished lengthwise
Flexibility	More stiff	More flexible
Length	Very slightly longer for the same type #9 sewing is 34 mm long	#9 sewing is 33.3 mm long
Cost for one standard sewing needle	$0.20	$1.20
Highest cost per extreme speciality needle	Up to $6.75 Heavy-duty mattress needle 250mm X 2mm	Up to $4.80 Leather needle 39.4mm X .96mm
Range of Types Readily Available	15 types	13 types

 

Do we have a favorite? It depends on the task! That’s why we carry and use them both.

We offer a full assortment of Sajou needles in one lot at https://www.etsy.com/listing/702552637/sajou-needle-assortment-pack-72-needles

Our Hiroshima needles in their original sets are in the “Notions” section of our shop.

 

If you want to try a different type of needle or have a favorite you can’t find somewhere else, contact us at twinsnneedlesevents@gmail.com and we will try to source it for you.

 

Check out: http://en.tulip-japan.co.jp/hiroshima/ to learn more about the Hiroshima brand and https://sajou.fr/en/1512-needles-and-pins to learn more about the Sajou brand needles.