Sometimes it's okay not to sew

It's October now, and even though we're having 70 degree temperatures, my mind has turned to the inevitable fact that in 2 or 3 weeks, I'll be huddled in my house, shivering.

I live in an old house. It's drafty. I can caulk all the gaps and the windows, and cover them in plastic, but that doesn't do much to combat the cold coming in through the walls which, being brick, lath and plaster, are uninsulated and cold as all hell throughout the winter.

Somehow for 10 years now, I've managed never to make curtains for the living room. Don't ask me how; there are valances up there, so the windows don't look entirely naked, but the rest of the curtains never materialized. I think that by the time I got to the living room, I was just so sick of making curtains (15 large windows within the first few months of home ownership) that I just stopped.

But now that I'm focused on winter, the curtains come to mind again. And I'm buying them, ready-made. I might need to hem them, but I'll manage that.

Why buy curtains? Even the Selfish Seamstress is making curtains these days, so why not me?

Pick one:

• A I'm not going to do it now that it's cool; I still won't enjoy it.
• B I found something that's inexpensive and will work well enough.
• C I'm still doing craft show sewing and that seems like enough obligation sewing at one time.
• D All of the above.

Yep, it's D. I found some chocolate brown foam-backed insulated draperies for $22 per window, and they're standing by, waiting to be run through the machine.

Though I'm sorely tempted to just let them hang down the wall behind the radiator and the big chair, respectively. It would cut even more draft. And justify my laziness.

A little retail therapy

I turned down a trip to Reading yesterday to go outlet shopping with a friend because, I said, I didn't have that much shopping to do and going to the outlets would only tempt me to spend money I didn't need to spend. So, instead, I did it closer to home.

We got the car for a few hours and went over to NJ to do a Sam's Club run (the kitties were running low on necessities), and while I bought the cat stuff, I also got the boy a sweater for Christmas, some munchies for the kitchen, picked out a cute top for his sister and added 3 bottles of wine to the stash.

I asked if he'd mind going to Jomar, which is a clothing/housewares/fabric outlet in South Philly. I hadn't been there in about 5 years, but I've just finished repainting the dining room and am in dire need of curtain fabric. It's a 3-window bay, so lots of curtain fabric. And I remembered Jomar as being inexpensive and slightly tacky, but I don't require garment-quality from curtain fabric, so I thought it would be an okay place.

Jomar's not easy to find. The address is 22 Jackson Street, but along the river most of the street numbers start at 100, at Front Street. So this was below Front Street and the river, in and amongst all these old factory buildings, some of which have been converted to outlets for sneakers and ethnic foods and scary clothing. One of the streets to get into the parking lot has been so neglected by the streets department that it still had cobblestones. He just kept looking at me, hoping I knew where we were going. I knew. I could smell fabric.

In less than an hour, I got 15 yards of a really pretty poly-blend lace for the sheers, 5 yards of burgundy, 5 yards of gold, one pre-made curtain packet with the exact same 2 colors, 8 yards of chenille fringe, 5 yards of gold/white/burgundy piping, a 2 yard chunk of burgundy velvet, oh, and about 10 yards of assorted fabric for me, including a charcoal gray with light blue windowpane plaid pant-weight wool. All for $99 and change.

So I feel better. Even though I probably spent more than if I had gone outlet shopping with Dianne, it was (mostly) all stuff that I did actually need. More on the fabrics later, after they've been washed and done up in some kind of curtain configuration.