If you're not Benny you might want to just close this post as it might be a bit boring for you.

So, I've been going on and on about the 'voile saga'. I wanted some voiles for my front windows as I couldn't afford blinds...plus Dus isn't keen on blinds thinking they would block out too much of our much coveted natural light (tall thin windows) and I think nets are a bit...urm.....grannyish?

Anyway, so I went to ebay (as you do) and found some, got the measurements, paid and got them sent. Perfect. Job done. Well no....they were not voiles, they were just plain net even though they were listed as voiles. So then I had the drama of trying to get a refund by this seller who said I shouldn't have expected true voiles as true voiles are much more expensive than she had them listed for. Oh....my bad that you listed them with the wrong description then.

So that ruled out ebay cos I just didn't want to take the chance again and go through the hassle. So I went to the market to the fabric stall as I know they sew and sell ready made items. The man there was nice and friendly and did me a 'deal' so actually they were only going to work out £10 more for both to have them made locally. So I went away, waited a week and went back to collect them, paid my money and came home. Went to get them out of the bag and hang them...they'd been sewn wonky. Like not even just a little bit that you wouldn't notice if you weren't a sewer yourself but properly wonky!

So I took them back, showed them to the girl on the stall, she apologised and gave me my money back. Great. Still no voiles! Surely I am not alone in wanting plain unfussy voiles to hang at my windows and not all these embroidered voiles or fussy nets?!

I hunted around a few more shops but I couldn't find any that were 160cm long so I realised I'd have to do the one thing I adamantly refused to do in the first place. MAKE. MY. OWN. !!! Eeeek!

I can sew bags, zips, purses, cottons, leathers, jerseys (oh actually, am not great on stretch..) but voiles....eeek! I was always told to stick to your strengths and if you know you are bad at something, either improve or get someone else to do it.

So I had no choice...I would have to do it myself and improve! I bought myself a rolled hem foot a while back and I knew I'd be needing it for this task although after I'd said on facebook I wasn't good at hemming voiles my Pastor's wife suggested hemming tape....dur...why hadn't I thought of that?!

Anyway, I sewed the channels fine then I went to sew the hems. I measured them straight...I know I did...I promise I did! It all went ok, a few of the cms of the hem are not great but overall it's an ok job. So then it was time to hang them and I got my spirit level out and got the net rods and the curtains. I held the curtains on the rods straight (According to the spirit level) and there was about 1 1/2 inch difference in the bottom above the windowsill.....urm...how does that work then? Oh yes...wonky old stone house...that'll be it.

I can't believe I forgot to take into account how wonky our house is even though the back upstairs window lintel disappears into the roof on one side and is 12 inches down on the other side....what a silly head!
My solution...? Hang the rod wonky, no one will see from outside and those inside will be sitting down so think they're just looking from an odd perspective...except anyone who reads this and THEN comes to visit in which case they might actually notice!

So I told this tale to Benny....and his end remarks...after all of that were.....what are voiles then?
I've taken some pics of my upstairs window which is far less wonky to tell the tale for those of you who looked at this post thought....*yawn* and scrolled down to the pics only. Just excuse the paint job and the window surround grime...it's a rented house that's been potched to within an inch of it's life and we're just not prepared to redecorate a house we rent and hope to be out of by this time next year.

I'm super pleased with them because they're nice and plain, a bit floaty and somehow make the room seem even brighter! Also it means I can wander around without worrying about Mr Dubai (who lives across the road) being able to see into our house.

So there we are....from drab to fab with only 3.5m of plain white voile! (And two net rods, 4 net rod holders, some rapid epoxy - don't ask, and a little bit of time and effort)

xx