Makes Me Happy Monday : Bohemian Curtains

I recently found myself without curtains in my art room since I used the panels from that space in another place in my home.  I had a set of brown muslin Ikea curtains that I picked up second-hand and thought that they would work well … but they just didn’t feel to step up to the festivity that this room embodies!

Quite some time ago, I saw a “rag curtain” that I thought was just wonderfully fun!  This is not the original place that I saw them, but look at THESE!!  Oh.so.cute! As much as I like these, they’re more for decoration and I wanted something practical that I could close to keep the cold out while blocking the view into my art space.

I had an old pair of Pottery Barn curtains in burgundy that were just a wee bit too short in width to cover the windows. They were a steal at around $6.00 for the two panels at Goodwill.

Soooo ……..
I shredded them into strips about four inches wide.
I have plenty of fabric that I have saved from other projects so I pulled all of those pieces out and began to pick and choose material patterns that coordinated well with each other. I used a Goodwill shower curtain, fabric from other curtains I have made in the past, an old pair of men’s dress pants that were nice fabric and even an old tapestry wall hanging that I picked up second-hand.

I pieced together fabric to create strips to add in between each solid burgundy strip.

My favorite part of the project may have been all the different embellishments. Here is a collage of some of them.

And I attached the Pottery Barn tag to one of the strip bottoms … right next to the selvage edge. I love the stamped printing on selvage edges!

Using my mantle as a “clothesline”,  I hung up the  burgundy strips and began placing the quilted strips in between.

 

One at a time, I joined one burgundy strip to one pieced strip, finally going back and joining every section to each other, creating two panels of quilted fabric.

I topped it off with a solid strip of fabric to strengthen the top
to keep the fabric from sagging from the weight of the curtains
especially as the curtains are opened and closed by hand.

The final product was a little more see-through than I was expecting ….

especially from outside the house.

Rather than sew anything to the back, I just used those great brown Ikea curtains to create a liner by simply clipping them them to the back.
I tore the fabric to fit so the edges were all left fraying like the edges of the main, strip panels.

No light filters through at all now. These should keep out the cold in the winter, keep out the heat in the summer
and allow me to sit in my art space without wondering if someone can see in.

I used existing hardware, old material pieces and a little bit of creativity. I left all the strings attached and created it in a very “crazy-quilt” with a huge-dose-of-haphazard kind of way! I jumped from zig-zag to straight stitching, depending on the fabric join. I used found objects, antique buttons, jewels and beads to embellish.

I made them just a bit long, on purpose ….. so they would have the feel of a long, flowy bohemian skirt.

They’re fun and funky while highly practical … and very “me!”
I guess my only real cost was a 250 yard spool of burgundy thread … and I LOVE these curtains!

My new bohemian crazy-quilt, scrap curtains Make Me SUPER Happy this chilly January morning.
How about you?

What makes YOU happy on this marvelous Monday?