The One-Yard-Too-Little Curtains

The cream/fawn curtains that were already in place in the room were relatively inoffensive but were too plain and made the room look very drab. I really wanted to make some blinds but with the width and construction of the windows it was going to be impossible. So, I opted just to replace the curtains with something with a bit more pep.

I bought this fabric at ikea when I was visiting my brother in San Diego. It ties in with the designs that I had chosen for the other 2 bedrooms but has a bit more pattern, which I thought was necessary.

However, as is of course the way (especially when you have no opportunity to go back to the shop and buy some more), I bought about a yard too little. (Likely to be the difference between yards I was cutting and metres in my head.  sigh)  Ahhhh, the frustration (enough to say, not good words were said)!

I tried calculating the measurements of the fabric again and again, but lets face it - you can't magic up threads from nowhere.

So, I was forced to adopt that age-old tradition ...... tack a bit of some other fabric on the end!

I bought some sturdy satin-finished material and have made a large bottom border and a sash from this material. I made the linings from just natural calico. In hindsight I wonder if the black material shouldn't have been at the top, but I don't mind how they turned out. It took quite a long time to get these all done given the extra hemming and the lining and the sashes, but pleased to have these completed finally.  Thoroughly sick of curtains for the time being.

And, in a fit of productivity I made a final tribute to the old wallpaper.  Whilst the migraine of the truck wallpaper was too much to live with, it was worthy of a tribute and has therefore been immortalised by framing a piece and giving it a well deserved place on the wall.