The Drapes Story aka Why my Mom is the Best Mother in the World.

It is time for the long awaited, much anticipated drapes story (or maybe I'm just fooling myself into thinking it's much anticipated!)

This past weekend my mom and I went to JoAnn's because they were having a huge 50% off sale and we had been throwing around the idea of making some drapes for the three windows in my room. We discussed what I wanted, then she let me loose in the home decor fabrics section. I went up and down every aisle trying to find ones that "said something" to me. Just when I was about to call it quits and go with a somewhat plain, slightly boring solid hunter green with green swirlies on it fabric, I came upon the section that really did it for me. Not only the section, but the perfect fabric. It had an antique, sort of tea-dyed beige background with green and eggplant purple (though both were sort of diffused and not so solid) squares on it, along with antique looking butterflies on it. I was in love with this fabric. And I mean in love. I was prepared to spend the $100 on it because I loved it that much.

So we took it to the cutting station where my heart was broken because there weren't enough yards on the roll that they had. Not only that, it was clearance, so they couldn't order me more... Slightly disappointed at this point, I trudged back to the section that "spoke to me," though now I'm not so sure it wasn't telling me to "kiss off, you can't have the fabric you want!" Anyway, I found a similar fabric with the same sort of unevenly tea-dyed beige background, only this one didn't have the squares of color, it just had colored leaves on it, the leaves were the same sort of green and purple that was in the butterfly fabric so I went with it. It still spoke to the nature lover in me so I took it knowing it wasn't my first choice and I settled on it, which has never been something that sit well with me.

We cut the fabric, I paid the (now seemingly ridiculous because it wasn't what I really wanted) price of $100 on fabric that I settled for and we came home. We didn't get to work on the drapes until Sunday afternoon, and then it was just me. Mom told me to cut the panels so she could get to sewing them the next day. She explained to me how she wanted them cut, so I laid them out, showed her again just to make sure I was doing it right. Then I cut. I wasn't really comfortable with it though because sewing is not my forte. Ask me anything about knitting and I can tell you everything about it, but the language mom was using on me about sewing was like Greek.

The next morning I see that mom had started working on them after I had gone to bed. Mom got up to see my dad off to work and she comes into the living room with 4 little words... "We have a problem..." Turns out I cut the panels wrong. Instead of cutting 6 2yd panels I cut 4 3yd panels. To say I was slightly upset would be an understatement. I just spent a ton of money on this 2nd choice fabric only to cut it wrong and need to buy more fabric just to make up for it. I think I may have been more upset with the fact that I was uncomfortable cutting the fabric, mom knew I was uncomfortable and yet she still made me cut it. And she told me I was cutting it right, trusting in the fact that I'm a "smart girl" and could figure it out myself. Kind of childish, but I couldn't help what I was feeling at the moment.

I decided to get down to it with a pen and paper and map out exactly what it was that she had in mind for the drapes and see if we couldn't work with the mistake I made. Turns out we could. So I went to work relieved knowing that I wouldn't have to buy more of the settled on fabric. At one point during the day Mom called me and we talked a bit about the progress she'd made on the drapes. Turns out not much, I guess she was waiting for my help (possibly not the best idea in the world seeing how well I "helped" with the cutting).

I got home from work to find mom, sort of in a bubbly mood, saying she had to show me the progress on the drapes. So I went into the sewing room which was scattered with panels of fabric on every surface it seems. She held up one of the panels and smiled at me. Obviously I was being dense, a long day of work can totally do that to you, because it took me at least a minute to realize that the fabric she was holding up wasn't the 2nd choice leafy fabric, but the first choice antique butterfly fabric! I was totally taken back. Mom explained to me that because we found a way to make it work with the panels I accidentally cut, it turned out that the orginal fabric would work, so she spent the morning out at JoAnn's buying me the fabric I really wanted.

This is just one of many reasons why my mom is absolutely the best mother in the entire world. So what's going to happen with the 2nd choice fabric that I bought? The fabric that does match my most beautiful drapes? Mom's going to make me a bed spread... Totally the best mom.