The Big Secret Project Reveal!

Are you ready for this?! You know the drill, pee, drink of choice....

Here we go on another wild ride of the OCD decorator! Remember when I whined and cried over hanging the wood blinds? If not, you can revisit that tragic story here. I love the wood blinds, but they needed something. A little bling to set them off. I looked and looked for some bling. Something that would make my little pacemaker go buzz.

The Nester posted here that she now had twins! I had to go and see. Is the woman nuts to have twins??! Nope, they were her new chairs she just got. They are gorgeous too. There in the picture was the bling that I needed! I went nuts. Crazy I tell ya! Overboard crazy! I knew that I would drive myself nuts trying to find them. That would take too long though. I wanted cheap too! I am redoing this room on a budget! An extremely small budget! Like nonexistent budget. So....

....I made my own custom ones! When I say "custom" I mean out of sheets! That were 5.00! At Walmart! The same color stripe that is a shade darker than the walls! Actually it is leftover paint from the kitchen.

I know! Please hold your applause though! I am going to tell you how to make drapes from curtains with your very own design on them! Aren't I the best?!

I love, love, love the wall color that I chose for the living room. The problem with it is though that it's hard to match. You would think that all beiges are created equally. Well, not so. Some fabrics make it look really gold and some get a pinky color to them. All I didn't like. I didn't want anything flowery either. I thought of plain white drapes, but *yawn* boring. I wanted the blinds to be noticed! Right now, they just faded into the room. You didn't notice them.

I went to Walmart and got 4 twin flat sheets. 5.00 each! Woo hoo! Sheets are the easiest thing to use. The top edge of the sheet makes a nice hem, the sides are finished and the end can be folded over to make a casing for the top of your curtain. Twin sheets are 96" long and I wanted my curtains to be 91" long. Perfect!

I washed and dried the sheets to get out the sizing. The sizing can mess with your painting so you do want to remove it. That left them a wrinkled mess because of course I immediately removed them from the dryer! *snickersnicker*

Once I was done ironing them, btw on the hottest muggiest day of the year, I measured down 5". Folded at that mark and pressed.

Unfold after ironing and fold to the ironed line. Press just along the edge. Fold back along your first creased fold line and pin.

Now sew as close to the edge and voila! You have your casing at the top!

I got a couple of those plastic drop cloths from the dollar store and laid one out on the floor. Lay your sheet out flat on top of that.

Now here is where the fun begins! I tried to take the orange out of these pics. I did this in the snake den of dispair and there is no natural light down there. You'll get the idea though. I wanted 11 stripes so with a little bit of math I calculated that my stripes would be 8-1/4". I started at the top and measured down, drawing a line with a fading pen. Then laid down tape against the line.

I did each stripe individually. The stripes that are being painted, you want to tape on the outside. Does that make sense? I brought my tape a little past the edge to help hold it on the drop cloth.

Once all the stripes were taped off, I ran over the tape with an old credit card. I wanted to make sure all the edges were down good and no paint would get under it.

Now, for the painting! I used this product. It turns any acrylic paint into a fabric paint! How ingenious is that?! You mix it 2 to 1. It took half a bottle for each sheet.

It took 2 coats to paint the stripes and I let it dry overnight. This made it dry enough to work with. The bottle says to let dry for 7 days. Then you need to heat set the colors. I only have one window done right now, but next weekend I plan on taking them down and heat setting the paint.

The moment of truth! Carefully peel off all the tape! I know, it looks really pretty, but do it anyways.

Fold in half and cut along the fold line. Fold over the cut edge twice and sew. Now you are ready to hang your creation and stand back to revel in your cleverness!

Total cost: $30.00!

Damn, I am good!

Posted @ SNS #84!

DIY Project Parade