Odd thoughts

So, well, I am having odd thoughts.  Those too-long curtains really do bother me.  So, I thought ... What if I bought a beginner sewing machine? ... but I truly struggle with understanding new things these days.

Since I moved here, I've had several folk offer to bring their sewing machine and do the curtain work for me.  Bethanie did come and was able to do most of the first floor curtains, for which I am exceedingly thankful.  She got all the ones in my line of vision.

I spent eons sewing making curtains to fit the basement windows from all the pieces I have had left from all the fitting and re-fitting of the original lace sheers I bought decades ago for my first apartment.  Amazingly so, I was able to find lengths that mostly worked with every window that needed a curtain in this house.  But those basement curtain took eons because I sewed them by hand.

The ones upstairs that need tending are almost all not lace sheers.  So, I am fairly certain they will show more of my mistakes.  Plus, frankly, I am not interesting in using my hands any more than necessary.

But a sewing machine is not a need.

I could rationalize it, fairly easily I think.  I mean, maybe I could learn to sew simple quilts or something like that and sew for shelters or something.  Or maybe I could make all my friends cloth napkins sets and bully them into not using paper napkins (I still sometimes use the latter ... sorry Becky).  Or maybe someone like Becky could tell me all the ways I could use a sewing machine to the benefit of others during my good times of the day.

But it still would be a want.

In my reading about sewing machines, this one kept popping up for beginners.  Part of me thinks it looks like something I could do, especially with a no-effort bobbin system, not that I understand what a bobbin is used for on a sewing machine.  Part of me thinks I am nuts for even having such thoughts.

Here is one argument that does weigh in my favor:  I want a weighted blanket.  There I said it.  I have been afraid to admit that for a long while, but when I pile up all three throws, the quilt, and the electric blanket on me and then Amos perches on top, I feel calmer ... more settled.  Maybe even safer.  So, I basically think that I could actually need a weighted blanket.

The thing is, weighted blankets in adult sizes are the very opposite of economical.  Plus, the cloth options I keep finding are just so very not Myrtle styles.  If I am going to pay $250-300 for a weighted blanket (not including shipping), I most certainly do not want an ugly pattern that does not fit with my house and my ... style (or lack thereof).  And, conveniently, up in my chest I have a quilt piecing that was never filled and backed.  I think it would make a most perfect weighted blanket for me.  I would back it with corduroy fabric.  [Surely there are GREEN corduroy fabrics in the world, right??]

[Amos wanted to "model" the quilt piecing.]

Actually, I would make the quilt and backing a cover, like a duvet, and make the weighted blanket out of the plainest fabric I could find so that the cover part could be washed.  I have a plan:  sew a strip of fabric on both ends on the inside of the cover that has button holes and sew buttons along both ends of the weighted blanket insert so that it stays in place.

The point is, buying the weights and the backing fabric and the sewing machine would still be much less than buying a (ugly) weighted blanket from a company.  And I could also make a weighted lap pad (for doctor's visits ... or church).

Now a sewing machines edges slightly more toward a need, right?  Or am I just an expert at justifying a purchase that fits nowhere in my budget?

Of course, the problem that remains is that 1) I know nothing of sewing machines and 2) I struggle to learn new things.

AWWK.  I really need all this onslaught of greedy consumerism to cease in the media.  Too much temptation abounds!  By the way, after seeing the commercial for the website 1,001, I went to www.bettermoneyhabits.com and watched the full main video and then all the other videos.  I happen to think it is a really good resource for budgeting and planning expenses, even if your income is low or extremely limited by an inordinately disproportionate amount of your income being allocated to medications and thus enforcing fiscal discipline.