An exercise in frustration...

I set myself a task today.  To finish making the valances for the bathroom.  Actually I set myself a bunch of tasks today because I figured that it would take no time at all to finish them.  Don't you love when a plan just falls into place?  Me too.  Except that's far from what happened.  Instead I was ready to tear my hair out.  I ran into one problem after another after another.

When the day started, I thought I was ahead of the game because I already had the fabric and lining cut out and I had even surged the edges on the focus fabric.  I kind of had to because the stuff was shedding like a banshee.  (Ever heard of that expression?  I used to have a friend that said it all the time in reference to everything.)  In any case, I managed to put together the valance for the toilet room pretty quickly.  Until it came time to install the grommets.  I picked up several packages of them from JoAnns, but had never personally tried them.

They were supposed to just snap together.  Easy peasy.  Except they weren't.  I struggled a good 10 minutes to get the first one in.  Fortunately the other 7 on this valance went together more quickly.  I hurried to the bathroom to hang it up and this is what it looked like...

 It was way too long.  I usually make my valances about a foot long but because I was using the grommets, I decided to research online and see what they suggested.  Everywhere I looked they said 18" and that's the length I made these.  So I had to take it back down and try to figure out the best way to shorten them.  After another frustrating amount of time, I hung it back up completed.

I think they look much better this length. I was glad I'd figured this out before assembling the longer valance to go above the tub.  So I trotted back to my sewing room to put that one together.  It didn't take too awfully long to assemble but when I went to install the first grommet, I accidentally cut the hole on the bottom of the valance and not the top. 

Oh crap!  Now what do I do?  All the edges were finished, so I had to do some wrangling, cut off one end and create a new side seam.  It's not the prettiest job I've ever done, but it's in the back so no one will see that it doesn't exactly match the other side.  Then I went to installing the grommets.  There are 16 of them on this wider valance.  It took me about 30 minutes to install the 8 on the previous valance, so conservatively it should have taken me an hour to complete this one.  But for some completely unknown reason, they wouldn't snap in!  I spent the better part of 3 hours trying to get these stupid plastic grommets attached to the fabric.  And in the end, I super glued the last 2 in place.  Yep, I was so extremely disgusted and frustrated with the whole thing that I pulled out the super glue.  And it worked.  So after hours and hours of work today, I've finally finished these 2 simple valances.  Here's the one hanging above the tub.

The stripes on the fabric are actually a kind of plush velvet and are very soft and rich looking.  It just so happens that the new hand towels in this room have the same vertical stripes on them.  Now all that's left is to recover a stool in the same fabric and to make some roll up shades.  Hopefully those 2 tasks go easier.  I can't remember the last time I was so frustrated and exasperated working on something.

Until later...

"If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong." 

1 John 1:9 (NLT)