Let There Be...

Dark.

Yesterday morning, after hopping out of bed bright and early...or groggily rolling over, subjecting the cat to morningbreath and trying to pat her on the head without poking out her eyes, while she raised her eyebrows at me and tried to figure out a way to move out of the way without hurting my feelings (depending on who's telling this story) I fired up the sewing machine.

And/or the iron...measuring tape...pins...and scissors (as the case may be)

I had a sewing purpose. Black out curtains for One Airstream owner who has been woken before 6 am for some time now with the amount of light glaring through his windows. Now, not to say anything against Airstream as a company, but all of their curtains are unlined (I know, gasp) and I have some serious issues with the decor and colors they choose in which to decorate these little beauties...I mean, come on. Surely with all the cuteness that is Airstream, they could employ someone like Todd Oldham (el Swoon-a-Rama La-Z-boy) and get their retro on...and besides, anyone who knows me, knows that were I to personally own an Airstream, it would be tarted up like a 1940's movie star (I have the collection of vintage barkcloth to prove it...and it's practically begging to be used) before you could snap your fingers.

There is a small part of me that thinks Rich may live in a little fear of his Airstream becoming my personal experimental stomping grounds...but, I deeply respect his living space (plus? I love hanging out there with my feet up in my spare time, and I don't want to do anything that would have him pushing me out the door) So, I understand that at this time, he has left the original decor that came with the Airstream intact and I am going to decorate...um, make him what he needs...in spite of, I mean...Well, I'm making him things that will fit right in (until he decides if/when he wants to replace all of the curtains to match the couch cover that I will be executing sometime in the near future...you know? So it will all match each other? I see a field trip to a fabric store in our near future...and I'm just itching to get started, but I've never done furniture coverings and am only a slight bit edgy about it...she says nervously chewing her fingernails)

Until then, I struck out on my own to gather things that would darken the back half of the Airstream, so that Rich could actually sleep in if he wants to. There was a small discussion at the fabric store via phone over the availability of silver black out fabric (not my idea) There was none, well, unless you count the silver quilted fabric you could use for an ironing board cover...But, I found the same black out curtain lining that I used for my own living room curtains (it would seem that we have the same good morning glaring sun problems...welcome to AZ) cut it to fit over the size of the windows I measured plus 1 inch, then cut some cute navy and cream star fabric for the side that would be facing the inside of the Airstream (the side that you can see from the outside is white and says, "If the Airstream's a rockin' don't bother knockin" Just kidding...that's not very classy, and one might just wrap the entire project in tinfoil and call it a day...but, this material does have an r-value for insulating purposes...fancy) and sewed them together (I was psyched because I thought the this material would be the perfect match to the interior, and it has stars on it...for night time. You know? In case Rich looses his mind and forgets what these are for? Joe!!!) Attached Velcro to the back...and...

Velcro, you say?

Yes...Velcro. The wall design of this particular Airstream have a kind of furry cream colored material snaking it's way half way up the interior (which makes it handy to hang pictures up...no nails you know...just Velcro) Now, when we originally discussed blacking out the windows, we were talking about covering cardboard with tinfoil (so he'd look like a true AZ resident...a lot of people do that here to their windows, it's tre-chic) but, in looking at the windows, I happily discovered that you could probably attach window coverings to the walls around the windows, over the windows all by using Velcro...That way you could take them down at will, roll them up for storage, and they wouldn't be cardboard covered with tinfoil...really, it's a win-win situation no matter how you look at it. Plus? I adore solving creative problems...it's a big turn-on with me.

All in all, it look me longer to pick out the supplies than it did for me to complete the project. There are a lot of different kinds of Velcro out there...who knew? Some of it is quite pricey as well for some odd reason...so, in the end, I went with the self stick that you can purchase by the yard and ended up with more than I would have if I bought it in a package. I stood so long in the Velcro aisle, the employees at JoAnn's started to walk people by so they could snicker and point and laugh at me...sigh. But, as far as I can tell, the curtains turned out great (with no tension problems on my sewing machine, which always makes me feel like some kind of stitch goddess, and I predictably ran out of bobbin and had to rewind 9 inches before I finished both shades. Perfect) Now I just hope they work like they're supposed to...

I will, however, be trying to pass off this project as being mightily difficult to elicit the proper amount of sympathy and back rubs...well, except that Rich reads my blog

(Hi Rich)

So, that may not work now...but, I will wish him a sweet night's sleep...and a dark dark morning with no sun...

Sweet Dreams.