Best tips to repair a bed linen and my most boring post ever

Today I will write extremely boring things… how to repair a bed linen and why our flat is untidy. I will give you every detail, so that you can use this post as a sleeping pill. I will bore you so much that your eyes will close involuntary and you start to drool. Just what we need in times of a pandemic: Relaxation ???

Here it goes…
Last week I already anticipated to be finished with my urbanite cardigan, but nooooooo!!!! It is still unfinished. The last meters of this project develop into a marathon and I am a sprinter: I may have thrown the d*** thing into a corner. Our flat looks as if a tornado of craftiness whirled through it (combined with folders and papers from home office).

There is this second sock for my husband – hardly believable but I honestly started it some days ago.
Then there is the huge bulk of the urbanite cardigan, with sleeves I constantly crochet, try on, unravel, repeat.

A pile of things to mend (e.g. bed linen I will tell you about in some seconds)
And as if I did not have enough flying around the rooms: I started to sew another blouse. This time refashioned from discarded men shirts (story for future blog post)

Oh and I forgot, I actually finished one item, but I cannot show it to you as it is a Easter gift for my mother, and she will look over my blog (I will either write about it after Easter or show it in our discord group)

Ok, back to the bed linen and why I repaired it. Both, my husband and I sleep on small rectangular pillows which are said to be good for your spine. These pillows need a smaller case than most German bed linen which comes standardized in 80 x 80 cm. All our pillowcases have this size and I fold the excess fabric weirdly around our pillows (hmmm should I sew them smaller; I just got this Idea?). The only bed linen set which is fitting is the one that ripped ?. Besides the practical aspect I like its lime green color and the motive of big leaves which reminds me of a vintage décor form the seventies aaaaannnd (sorry for the long sentence) we bought it in Nimwegen during a wonderful holiday.

I know, this sounds like the perfect bed linen everyone wants to have, but even this heavenly cotton-creature has a catch, its closure. All of our other bed linen have either buttons or a zipper. This one though has an overlapping piece of fabric you stuff fold over. Works like sh**. Every time you move the fabric slips out and you wake up in the morning with a half-undressed duvet.
So, my two objects were to repair the rip and to sew buttonholes.

With the repairing I have done a so-so job. I only have two small squares of cotton fabric in my stash and both are not lime green. I have chosen the dotted fabric and I try to convince myself it looks artistically and special… ??
For the mending I should have researched, but I did not. So, I fumbled my way with this long rip. The fabric of the linen was frayed, and it seemed as if it also got a bit wider because of this rip. I could not simply close the tear like a seam. Therefore, I folded the ripped fabric and sewed it to get a durable edge. Next step was to pin on the new fabric. I found this spectacular difficult and I have no real clue why: perhaps because the bed linen is big or because the tear and the whole linen tried to fold itself in strange ways… ? Finally, I sewed the new fabric in place. I hope this will endure my frantic nightly rolling ?

Sewing the buttonholes was a piece of cake in comparison. I ironed on a small stripe of Vliseline (kind of glued interlining) and then folded the fabric and ironed again. I sewed the fold and then went to browse through my button stash and found these 8 green buttons (green seems to be not my favorite button color… I really had to search to get these together)

Then I sat down and prayed as I have only made buttonholes once with my sewing machine (you remember my brown winter coat?). I chose the right yarn, inserted the needle, changed the sewing foot and selected the buttonhole program and: screeeeeetch. I heard a high and unpleasant sound and my sewing machine did exactly nothing. I tried several times with the same result. I switched the machine off and on: Still the same gruesome sound.

I was perplexed as I clearly remembered how easy the first buttonholes in my coat were to sew. I consulted the instructions but came to no conclusion. I consulted them again and there it was: „Ziehen sie den Knopflochhebel bis ganz nach unten“ (it reads like „pull the buttonholelever to the deepest position“). But I could not find a description where to find this „Knopflochhebel“, no schematic no description only despair.
I guess you are by now properly asleep, so I will cut it short. After a tiny bit of searching (hours) I found a hidden plastic lever with arrows and a buttonhole symbol and I could pull it down. Exactly like it was written in the explanation. If there would have been a single photo that would have helped. ??
Afterwards it was a breeze. I put the button into the sewing foot and this little Knopflochhebel determined the length of the buttonhole. In no time I had them finished. I so hope I do not forget this lever again.
There we are. I have my bed linen repaired and you are by now bored relaxed enough to fall asleep ? ??

Thank you @crosheille for iniciating and @muscara, @shanibeer, @marblely for hosting the #needleworkmonday. If you want to see more beautiful projects with yarn, fabric and most of all needles, follow @needleworkmonday on hive blog. Or even better grab your needles and keyboard and join the #needleworkmonday community. You can read more comments on this post on my hive blog. 

If this is not enough, you can find my post also on Handmade on Tuesday and read even more about knitting and sewing, but beware most post are in German.