New Curtains

The other day I had noticed while cleaning that my dear, sweet husband had somehow managed to get the previous night's cheeseburger on our curtains. My best guess is that it came from the grill spatula and when he was coming in it rubbed up against them. Either way, I took them down and put them in the laundry. I didn't notice any special care instructions, so I tossed them into the dryer. After they came out literally every square inch was wrinkled. I tried 'fluffing' them in there again, and there was no change. I ironed one two foot section for about twenty minutes, and they were still as wrinkled as before.

This wasn't so horrible, because it gave me the idea to make some new curtains. We put our orange ones up when we moved in three years ago, so I was looking forward to the change. I searched the fabric and home stores online, but nothing was really jumping out at me. We had a little money, so I decided to run to Ikea and look at their selection. I ended up finding this pill-like looking fabric. It's a white background with colored half circles. At $6.99/yard I was able to get all 5 yards for under $40.

Ikea 'Edholm' fabric

curtains before: plain orange with white sheers

curtains after

I also found a great new lime green sheer at Target for $1.94

I'm really pumped with the final results. The new curtains are so fun and colorful. I also think that they mesh really well with our retro themed kitchen. I just asked Phil to please promise me that he wouldn't get and burger or any other food on these. ;)

I also actually ended up with a little extra fabric, because I opted to not to do the tabs at the curtain tops. Just this morning, our lovely dog Paisley destroyed our cute little couch pillow. Since I already had the machine out and threaded I whipped up a new one from the same fabric.

Needless to say, it was a good productive day and I'm happy that I got some sewing done again. I used to take classes downtown at the Singer factory every Monday (and had done so for almost three years). With my health and our finances I had to let them go this past December. It was a bummer, but at least I have the skills and the equipment to continue sewing at home. 

I cannot wait for spring when we repaint/ redo the living room and I get to make more custom curtains for our picture window!