A Bit Less Doomy

The most recent pile of acoustical drapes are migrating from behind the couch towards the front door.  This is a good thing, because each army-green duffel bag moved is one drape done.

I can now add grommet removal to my list of skills.  The bowl of little brass colored rings has filled steadily over the last week.  Once I removed the grommets, I patched the spot with denim, so they're ready to be re-grommeted.  I also added iron-on patches to any holes I found and fixed a couple of hems.  Two headers had more torn or weak grommets than good one.  I deemed them unpatchable, ripped out the headers to replace them.  The very last drape is prepped for a new header tonight.  Yay.

The little red clips I bought for holding quilt bindings in place work just as nicely for the denim patches.  Clipped those across the top, a few pins on the bottom and voila!  I've done fairly well at sewing near the edge and yet catching both sides of the patch.

I fear the denim patches are too small and strong compared to the surrounding header, and I'll just be fixing the fabric next to them if (when) the drapes visit me again.  Ugh.  Googling information on grommet repair yields a lot of stuff on making your own grommet, how to bypass a ripped one, how to avoid using grommets altogether for camping tarps.  But I have found nothing on how best to repair heavy curtains.  The longer I work with the Drapes of Doom the more experimental (creative?) the project becomes.

Wrestling with drape #5

I also discovered that sitting on the drapes too long (they've been in the house since November) can cause scope creep.  I was asked... since I still have them... if I could reinforce the bottom corners of some small drapes so they could be hung sideways.  Again, the internet has let me down (or I need better searching skills).  I could really use an engineer to tell me what kind of reinforcement would be best to prevent these drapes from ripping apart in the first place!  The Drape's spokesperson has given me a few ideas; I may simply try those out on some of the drapes.

Regardless, this is satisfying work.  I wish I could predict how well my fixes will wear over the years, especially these denim header patches.  I am happy to see some earlier work looking spic-and-span.  The drape committee is now numbering the drapes, so I can keep records of when/what I've done for each one.  It pleases the picky, nerdy side of me to track how well my repairs last.