Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Sew Easy

I recently borrowed my sister-in-law's sewing machine to sew some curtains for our home. I was tired of our bare windows and really wanted to add some color and pattern & soften the look of our rooms up a bit with some fabric! I was pretty motivated to sew our curtains myself because a) it's more economical and b) I am not limited by the curtain selection I can find in a store, and I can choose any fabric I want and any style my heart desires! I was extremely inspired by mistreatments by The Nester, so I set off to find the perfect fabric. I found two perfect patterns, a paisley and a stripe, that complemented each other well and shared a similar color palette, which was important because we have two sets of windows in one large open great room. I wanted to use a different fabric in our kitchen bay window than on our living room window. After a tutorial from my sister-in-law, I was off and sewing for the first time since junior high home ec!

I must come clean for you Nester fans. I didn't execute in true Nester form because I decided to sew. The fabric I selected seemed to fray easily, so I decided to be safe rather than sorry and put in some hems. I also wanted to give the pleated curtain some added structure for the pleats, so I backed the paisley fabric with a liner.

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was and how quickly I was able to finish the project!

For our kitchen bay window, I sewed one long panel, then I folded evenly measured overlapping pleats and used a clip ring on the overlapped material.


I then ironed each pleat to give it a crisp edge.

I didn't want to sew each pleat in because it allows me much more versatility in the future! If we move down the road or I want to use the panel differently, I have one long piece of fabric to work with and can adjust the curtain to any window or style if I want or need to make a change. I was really happy with how it turned out and got exactly the look I was going for!


I used the striped fabric to make some basic vertical panels that pool in the floor for our living room window.


The overall look! (Please excuse the *mess* of cords in the floor!!!)

I wish that we had better natural lighting in our house for photos so you could get a more true idea of the colors. But, I appreciate the natural shade of the trees and porch to help shield us from the hot Texas sun! I absolutely adore both of the fabrics and love how they bring out the blue and green shades of paint on our walls! It's amazing how much homey-er a room feels with the simple addition of curtains!

2 comments:

The Nester said...

well girl, these look fabulous! you didn't break any rules by sewing! you did that part because you wanted to no because someone told you that you had too! I think lining is what I miss most and if I had the time to add one thing to my mistreatments it would be lining. I probably never will!

love the paisley and stripe mix too!

talk to you later!

Lee Family said...

Wow! these are great! I'm super impressed with your sewing skills! :) Sewing and knitting are 2 things that I have been wanting to learn how to do for years and have just not gotten around to it yet... Roberta