Les Izmore
Junior Ranger
This post is similar to a post by Rotus8 from last year, but here I'm only talking about repairing a damaged part of the curtain slide tape (which can be purchased from Amazon.com).
I decided after a very dusty few months last year that it was finally time to dry clean our curtains. When I took them off to do so, I noticed that the curtain tape was torn in two places where the plastic slides are attached to the tape. The dry cleaner wasn't interested in repairing them for us, so we looked for our own solution. We've seen other Camp Inns with this same problem, so figured it is worth sharing our experience.
Thanks to Rotus8 for posting the specifics of the needed curtain tape in his earlier post (we might consider adding the extra slide that he suggests, after we get our curtains reinstalled this weekend)! And thanks also to Mrs. Huff's class Home Ec For Boys, which I took in 1973. She is one teacher who I think of often, as the skills I learned in her class are skills that I use nearly every day of my life.
Repair is a simple matter of cutting out the slides that are ripping away from the tape. Cut off a piece of new slide tape, leaving maybe an inch of so of plastic on either end. Then hand stitch them in place (there is no need to pin the new tape down, since you will naturally being hanging on to it as you thread the needle through). You might need a thimble to help get the needle through the fabric, liner and two layers of tape, but even using a fairly fat needle it was possible to simply wiggle the needle to help ease it through.
CUT OUT THE TORN SLIDE
CUT A PATCH STRIP AND SEW IT IN PLACE
VOILA! THE PATCH IS BARELY VISIBLE!
While we chose to put a patch on our curtain slides, it was also possible that we could have simply sewn the torn piece back down. We opted not to do that, thinking a patch would be a more permanent repair.
I decided after a very dusty few months last year that it was finally time to dry clean our curtains. When I took them off to do so, I noticed that the curtain tape was torn in two places where the plastic slides are attached to the tape. The dry cleaner wasn't interested in repairing them for us, so we looked for our own solution. We've seen other Camp Inns with this same problem, so figured it is worth sharing our experience.
Thanks to Rotus8 for posting the specifics of the needed curtain tape in his earlier post (we might consider adding the extra slide that he suggests, after we get our curtains reinstalled this weekend)! And thanks also to Mrs. Huff's class Home Ec For Boys, which I took in 1973. She is one teacher who I think of often, as the skills I learned in her class are skills that I use nearly every day of my life.
Repair is a simple matter of cutting out the slides that are ripping away from the tape. Cut off a piece of new slide tape, leaving maybe an inch of so of plastic on either end. Then hand stitch them in place (there is no need to pin the new tape down, since you will naturally being hanging on to it as you thread the needle through). You might need a thimble to help get the needle through the fabric, liner and two layers of tape, but even using a fairly fat needle it was possible to simply wiggle the needle to help ease it through.
CUT OUT THE TORN SLIDE
CUT A PATCH STRIP AND SEW IT IN PLACE
VOILA! THE PATCH IS BARELY VISIBLE!
While we chose to put a patch on our curtain slides, it was also possible that we could have simply sewn the torn piece back down. We opted not to do that, thinking a patch would be a more permanent repair.
