Odd Jobs

Irritating odd jobs tend to get put off, sometimes indefinitely, or forgotten.  This week I decided to clear three out of the way.  First, a transformation, of a denim skirt that my daughter grew out of years ago.  All it needed was a length of old picture cord, a seam across the bottom...

... and now I have a brand new peg bag.

Next came a repair job to a cardigan.  The petersham inside the front edges was disintegrating, so I had a rummage through my bag of green scraps and found two strips of cut off selvedge in exactly the right shade.  This was a minor miracle in itself.  It is years since I kept strips of selvedge.  These days they go straight in the bin.  The strips were long enough to bind the front edges and make the cardigan wearable again.  It had got to the stage where I was nervous about putting it in the washing machine in case the buttonholes came out ruined, but now it is repaired it can have its long overdue wash.

And finally, a tie-back for a curtain.  This curtain hangs between the kitchen and the dining room, and is only closed in the winter when it gets draughty in the evenings.  We don't want to put a hook in the wall because the plaster is a bit old and fragile, so I have made a strip to wrap around the curtain.  At one end there is a buttonhole and a button, and at the other end, two buttonholes.  

I sewed a button to the curtain...

... buttoned the tie-back onto it, wrapped it round, and the two buttonholes at the other end go over the two buttons.  Easy.  Why didn't I think of this when I made the curtain ten years ago?