Mick and I are in agreement that the worst night we have spent in Bertie was two years ago tonight, in the car park of the Erwin Hymer Museum in Bad Waldsee (Germany). What that night had in common with a number of other memorable sleepless nights was an invasion of mosquitos. The most recent such attack was on 26 February this year which provoked a blog foot note saying that I really must get around to making a proper mosquito net.
Well, that’s a job that I can finally tick off the to-do list!
The activity started a few weeks ago when I measured up and bought the materials. Our previous makeshift mosquito net was a piece of lightweight netting that I’d originally bought to make a fly screen for Colin’s sliding cargo door. As things turned out, we sold Colin before I got around to using the fabric and since then it has been used as a makeshift (and rather unsatisfactory) mosquito net for Bertie’s bed.
Previous makeshift solution: a flat piece of fabric onto which I tied a loop of ribbon, which hooked over Bertie’s reading light. Because of the position of the light, the fabric draped onto Mick rather than being suspended over him.
I was on the cusp of ordering another swathe of that material (not cheap, as it’s intended use is in the manufacture of lightweight backpacking tents), when I glanced up at the net curtain at one of our windows and thought that material would do just as well.
A few days later the necessary wire clips and a 2x3m piece of plain net curtain arrived and last week I spent a day designing and sewing.
I’m not sure that the photo of the end result does justice to how much work went into it:
Being modelled by Mick at the point that I decided to add (and pinned on) three more attachment points at the foot end (originally it was going to drape from the middle of the bed)
The finished item. The long side wall nearest the camera uses the original lightweight netting; the rest is the net curtain material that cost less than half the price per m2.
Possibly over-engineered, but it only takes a minute to put up and take down (and about five minutes to then work out how best to fold it!) and we’re confident that it will give us comfortable nights when under attack from biting whininglittle bastards insects.
Well, that’s a job that I can finally tick off the to-do list!
The activity started a few weeks ago when I measured up and bought the materials. Our previous makeshift mosquito net was a piece of lightweight netting that I’d originally bought to make a fly screen for Colin’s sliding cargo door. As things turned out, we sold Colin before I got around to using the fabric and since then it has been used as a makeshift (and rather unsatisfactory) mosquito net for Bertie’s bed.
I was on the cusp of ordering another swathe of that material (not cheap, as it’s intended use is in the manufacture of lightweight backpacking tents), when I glanced up at the net curtain at one of our windows and thought that material would do just as well.
A few days later the necessary wire clips and a 2x3m piece of plain net curtain arrived and last week I spent a day designing and sewing.
I’m not sure that the photo of the end result does justice to how much work went into it:
Possibly over-engineered, but it only takes a minute to put up and take down (and about five minutes to then work out how best to fold it!) and we’re confident that it will give us comfortable nights when under attack from biting whining
No comments:
Post a Comment