"Good Enough" Burlap Shades

Oh, there you are.
I mean, here I am!

I know, it has been MONTHS since I last posted anything. Here at House Number Three, we've been dealing with three straight months of sickness. The kind of sickness that required hospital visits and trips to specialists, and sleepless, worrisome nights. Everything-else-takes-a-back-seat sickness. But we're over it. I hope. We're breathing a little easier, and getting more sleep.

And then the holidays were thrown in there, somewhere. Before I knew it, the hubs and I spent our Valentine's Day schlepping kids around to THEIR activities, while we shared a shake at the local diner.

But then today, I did a project. I made something, and it felt good! I even managed to take some pictures, and I just couldn't wait to share it with you all!

Somewhere during the holidays, we kinda-sorta started putting our basement together. We patched a damaged wall, painted most of it, bought a sectional, and had Santa deliver a ping pong table. We love to travel, so I decided to decorate it with pictures of the places we've been and give the whole room a travel theme. I'm still working on it, so that's for a later post.

In the meantime, I had three windows to dress. They're your typical, ugly basement windows with no view at all, except for some metal window wells.

I thought about doing bamboo roman shades, but they were more money than I wanted to pay for a room where raucous teens and tweens would be spending their time. I went to Ikea, hoping to find a solution, but none appeared, so I had just kind of given up, thinking that something would pop into my mind eventually.

Then, last week, my sister-in-law, Charlotte, had a curtain project of her own that went horribly awry. Let's just say she now needs both a new vacuum cleaner and a dryer. But she also had a huge bolt of burlap that she no longer wanted!

TA-DA! An idea popped: burlap roman shades!

I mostly work under the motto of "Eh, it's good enough." And when you're working with burlap, that's a good working motto. First of all, I lucked out, because the width of the bolt was exactly the length of my windows, so there wasn't a lot of cutting or measuring that I had to do. Second of all, I read a few blog posts on working with burlap. If you're looking for perfectly straight hems, or even some sewing at all, this is not the project for you. But, if you're looking for a quick, easy, inexpensive way to cover some windows that require nothing more than a glue gun and some scissors, read on!

First of all, gather the materials: burlap, jute twine, scissors, and a glue gun. Measure your windows and cut the burlap to fit. I learned a really cool trick for cutting burlap: pull a string/fiber out from where you want to cut. It will leave you with a nice, straight cutting guide.

Once the burlap is cut, fold down the top to make a pocket for your rod. I used $3.00 tension rods from Walmart.

Ignore the cruddiness of my glue gun. It's probably 20 years old, but still does the job! Be careful not to burn yourself with the hot glue as you press down the edge. Again, I just sort of eyeballed it as I folded and pressed. Once you've done that, slide the tension rod through the pocket and hang it up.

Finally, take some jute twine (purchased at Walmart in the hardware department for less than $2.00) and run it over the top of the rod.

Seriously, I didn't even bother to tack it to the burlap at all. It's just hanging there. TA-DA! In about an hour, I had three burlap shades hanging in the basement.

Roll the burlap shade up to the desired length, then tie off with the jute.

I love how they allow the light to filter through, while covering up those unsightly window wells. Now if I could just get the kids to put the ping pong paddles away.

Burlap is all the rage right now, and I like that it's heavier, so it makes a good shade-type material. Don't try to fight it. Just let the burlap do what it's going to do and I think you'll have success with your project.

So there you have it! No-sew burlap shades that are, eh, good enough!

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!

Lazy Seamstress Kitchen Window Panel

Do you hate blinds as much as I do? They gather dust, they're always in my way, the cords get tangled...yeah, I hate blinds. I like curtains and drapes much better. Sure, they get dusty, too, but you can just throw 'em in the washer.

So House No. 3 has a west-facing kitchen window, and the heat has been BRUTAL in the afternoons. Also, I'm practically blinded when trying to cook dinner.

I had a little spare time the other morning, so I decided to sew up a panel for the window. I am definitely a lazy seamstress. I figure the less sewing I actually do, the better my project will look! I went to the store and bought a yard of this bright, cheerful fabric:

The dimensions of the fabric were near perfect, so I didn't cut anything at all! It was 5 inches longer and 3 inches wider than my window, so I pressed and hemmed accordingly, using a zig-zag stitch. (I didn't take pictures of any actual sewing --sorry)! The bottom edge was the selvage edge, and like I said, the less sewing I do, the better it will look. So I left it raw. I sewed a pocket hem at the top and used a tension spring rod to hang it.

I love the bright zing of color it adds to my very neutral kitchen. I just push it open to one side when I want the natural light to come in.

All said and done, this little sewing project cost $7.00 for the fabric, $3.50 for the rod, and took a little less than an hour to do!