Sewing

Recently one of my friends from D asked me to post some pics of the alterations I did to J and I's mosquito net. Mosquito nets are one of those things out here that are essential and useful but also very annoying. Malaria is a huge issue and the nets are one way to prevent malaria. Tucking them in at night is a hassle though. I got tired of going to bed and tucking it in everytime I got out through the night. Thus I came up with the idea that if I could sew a hem in the bottom that I could run an elastic through creating something like a fitted sheet effect things would be much easier. So the next time I took the net down to wash it I did some sewing and installed the elastic. BEST THING EVER. Now I just slide under the net into bed. grab the mattress and roll slightly and it tucks itself in.

After photo (sorry no before shots but they look the same)

 here you can see the folded portion. There is approx 3.5-4m

of 1cm elastic in it that I brought from Canada.

End result underneath. As long as I lift the mattress it will 

pull the net to something like this. If I don't lift the mattress 

then  it will pull to the edge of the mattress but there are tiny gaps.

I also did some sewing of curtains. I haven't seen any curtain rods anywhere in J but instead we  have long springs (like piano wire) with hooks on the end which attach to screws in the wall. all this was in place when I first arrived but J had never hung any curtains. Although our place is fairly high up from the ground, I still felt  like I was in a fish bowl and I didn't like that. So off I went to the market and found some material for approx $3US per meter. I had  initially calculated that I only needed 4-5m of material but they prefered to sell the patterned material in 6m chunks so I bought all 6m which was a good thing as I needed it ALL and there would have been no going back for more as the "rolls" are only 12m long and I took the last 6m. Once I had them hung I realized that I needed some way to tie them back. J  likes to keep them open during the day for the breeze to come through so he decided to fix them....

J's answer to pulling back the curtain utilizing the rope he hung a long time ago for an indoor clothesline. 

My answer was a little different. 

1/2m of solid blue material (this comes in actual rolls and thus I could buy less than 6m) and some snap buttons I brought from Canada. 

J's solution on the left, curtains but no straps on the right.

Started by sewing a strap, putting the snaps on

sewing the strap into the edge of the curtain

 hooking the snap together. 

 finished result on the left. 

very convenient and looks much better. 

You cant tell very well in the pic but the blue in the curtain and the strap are 2 different shades and don't match very well. This is a result of not very good lighting when I bought the material but it works for now. I'll use the rest to put curtains on the door. They are done but I need to get screws so I can tie a rope to hang them off of. Hopefully its not to hard to find in the market.