Long before I met my husband, he had a band of woman who ran around helping him to various domestic chores that he was (and probably still is) incapable of doing! One of his harem - the lovely Agnes- made him a set of curtains for the lounge (as an aside, she was the girlfriend of one of his friends and is now married with a swarm of kids to that same guy!). She did an amazing job. I thought they were professionally made! But after eleven or twelve years of hanging in the same spot, there were some tears appearing in the high stress area where they are pulled shut in the evenings. I looked at them every morning thinking something needed to be done about it as a shaft of sunlight streamed through the gap and onto the ceiling. It was that whole "a stitch in time saves nine" probverb coming to life right before my very eyes... Finally - with the sewing machine already set up and the (almost) right coloured threads in it, I got the husband to take the curtains down for me...