Mending my ancient curtain with a stranger's skirt

"You're the only person I know who would bring an entire CURTAIN to a hot springs." -Matt, after asking me what entertainment I was going to bring on our weekend retreat two hours away in the woods.

When we moved in to our house ten years ago, the previous tenants left two long brown curtains up in the dining room window. We never got around to replacing them because if it ain't broke, why fix it. 

Then we got Tig.

Above you can see one of Matt's earlier attempts at repairing the GIANT TEARS our cat inflicted on one curtain from jumping straight up in the air and embedding her little claws into the fabric so she could just... hang. Hang from the curtains. Hang from these curtains that had, at a minimum, been getting scorched in the sun for at least the last ten years and very likely quite a bit longer. She tore through them like butter.

This is a skirt I bought at Goodwill for $4.99 specifically to use in projects because I liked the pattern on it. My original thought was that I might be able to use it on my Joy Project, so keep an eye out for it later.

Just sewin' in my hammock, as one does. (Now imagine me doing this out in the middle of the woods at a worker-owned coop hot springs resort with dozens of middle-age hippies soaking naked in natural hot water pools. Some of them, like Matt, brought books or crossword puzzles to stay entertained without internet access between soakings. Not me, my friend. Not me.)

The first skirt-turned-patch in place.

Hilariously, the pressure from my embroidery hoop was enough to rip through the curtain's ancient, deteriorating fibers, so I wound up with three brand new tears that needed fixing.

For the second round of patching, I adhered a much larger section of interfacing to the back of the curtain and added a ton of stitches just to keep them secured to each other. Just sewing those simple stitches created new (small) holes, which you can see I then embroidered over to keep them closed. I think these curtains must have been really old.

I knew it wouldn't be winning any beauty pageants, but laid out in front of me it looked like my patches would do the trick and I liked the richer story they implied. I liked the designs on the patches and I liked that I had made them from a stranger's discarded skirt. I liked that damaged items don't have to be thrown away, they can live a second life with a little time and care. I liked that this patchwork curtain fit in with the rest of my house's cobbled-together aesthetic, so many items collected from friends and from trash, displayed as centerpieces and repurposed into practical items. Matt and I lovingly refer to our home as our Garbage House and a patched-up curtain would fit in just right.

TURNS OUT THE LIGHT JUST POURS THROUGH EVERY STITCH IN THE CURTAIN AND THE TEARS "HIDDEN" BEHIND THE PATCHES. 

Amazing. 

After the days and days (and days) of all that hand sewing, we dug out these Ikea curtains from a box in the basement. They're also ten years old, but they hadn't been used and it turns out the red actually makes the room feel a lot brighter. 

Livin' and learnin'!