Friday, August 05, 2011

Curtains for the Little Man

I finally found the fabric that I wanted to make curtains for the Little Man's room. Yay! I believe that its been a year and a half since we moved him out of my office (his nursery) into his own bedroom.

I tried out some all white grommet top curtains at first, and they were just too plain and boring. Then I found a navy shower curtain with a printed ivory design on them that I thought might work if I cut them and reconfigured them into panels. You can see them in the bookshelf post. They ended up being to dark and too skimpy for my taste.

I was hoping for a chevron print that I could use, but I never could quite bring myself to buy the ones that I found. They have a nice blue or yellow or brown at Fabric.com, but I what I wanted was gray. Pale gray.

Well, then it occurred to me that those are all Premier Prints fabrics. So I searched for Premier Prints and found their website. I am such an idiot. How did I not know these existed? I've actually used several of their prints before when I made all those aprons for Christmas several years ago. Ta da! Their Zig Zag design comes in the perfect Ash/White print. (I'll save you the leg work if you happen to want this fabric and tell you that the cheapest place that I found it was here, btw.)

I ended up buying 8 yards of fabric, so that I would have some extra, because I love it. I was trying to figure out how to cut it the right length, so I ended up folding it in half and laying it out the length of my living room/dining room and just using a measuring tape. Of course, the Little Man decided not to nap that day, so I had to get him up while I still had the fabric laid out and was trying to double-check my calculations before cutting.

He put on his rain boots and his 8-ball bike helmet and was riding his trike up and down the fabric like it was a runner just for him. He was saying "Wheeee!" and going back and forth and stomping around in his rain boots. He was in rare form and totally cracking me up. I was laughing so hard and trying to capture him on video to show The Man. Its a wonder I even cut these things right.

So here they are . . .



I'd never made curtains, but I wanted to do it right, if I was going to spend so much money on fabric. I wanted fully-lined, professional-looking curtains. I found an excellent tutorial here. I bought drapery lining at JoAnns. I don't know much about linings, but it was heavy enough and soft and about middle-of-the-road price. I learned how to make a blind hem on You Tube. Awesome. They turned out perfect!



I am so happy with how these look in his room. They are perfect! I'm nearly finished with it now. I wish I knew of a better way to store all his stuff, but this is how it is. We've already swapped his crib for a toddler bed, and now we need to swap out a new dresser for his changing table/dresser. We've already got the dresser, and I painted it last week.

Now I just have to get my act together and get my office ready to be set up as the nursery again. I'm getting concerned that number two is coming sooner, rather than later, so I need to get things done. Seriously. I'm not ready.

Oh, and if you happen to like this fabric for curtains, but don't want to sew them - lookie here. Someone is selling custom panels on eBay.

1 comment:

Thimbleanna said...

Wow. Those are VERY cool! Lucky Little Man to have such a talented Mama!