Duvet to Drapes on a Dime

I've mentioned that I hate blinds, right? Let's talk about what I DO like. Natural light. Cool breezes blowing in through the window. Curtains that flow and billow in said breeze.

House No. 3 has lots and lots of windows that let in an enormous amount of sunlight. I guess I'm kind of like Superman -- not so much in the sense that I'm extremely good-looking or can fly -- but in the sense that I crave the warm sunshine on my skin. No sunlight=no energy for this girl! But I digress. Score one for House No. 3 and sunlight! Also, we live in the mountains, where cool breezes are plentiful.

There are 12 windows on the main floor of the house, and all but 3 are in need of curtains. I'd been thinking for quite some time about what kind of curtains I wanted. And do you know what? Curtains are hard to find! You have to get the size right. It's difficult to find a print/pattern that complements your decor. In addition to that, they're super expensive! I found curtains that I really liked, but they cost $100 per panel. That's $200 per window, people! Who can afford that? Certainly not a freelance writer!

So one day a few weeks ago, I'm walking through my favorite TJ Maxx store, feeling dejected because they didn't have any curtains I liked, when something pretty catches my eye. It's a duvet cover made up of the exact colors I wanted for my curtains! And maybe it's because my brain was in "curtain" mode, but I had a brilliant idea. Why not turn this duvet cover into curtains? I looked at the measurements and figured I could make the curtains I needed if I bought three duvet covers -- luckily, they had exactly three on the shelf!

So I brought them home and took them apart. At first I used a seam ripper, which took forever an hour to unpick one duvet cover. Then I realized at 80-inches wide, I had more than enough fabric, so I took the scissors to them.

As I've mentioned in another post, the less sewing I do, the better off my projects are. The thought of pressing, rolling, and hemming all those looooong edges was too much of a risk. After all, people are going to see these things everyday! So I called my awesome sister-in-law, who let me use her serger. We whipped through those babies so fast, I forgot to take pictures!

I ended up with 3 sets of curtains for the family room:

(Yes, the wind had blown our deck chairs all over the place that day)!

And two sets of curtains for the office:

In all, I spent $75 for 5 sets of curtains, that billow in the breeze quite nicely, thank you. Remember that ONE panel that cost $100? Besides that, I couldn't have purchased material at a fabric store for that price. And I still have plenty of fabric left over to make matching throw pillows! As far as curtain rods go, I'm convinced Ikea is the best place for those. Each rod system I purchased cost about $7 -- including the rod, brackets, and clip rings. Not too shabby.

SO -- I hope this little project inspires you to think outside the box for one of your next projects. If you do, be sure to share it with me!