Curtains & Pillows!

Our lives have consisted more of upkeep on the house lately, which is totally fine, but we still have several projects still lying about (some of them quite large ones).

One of the bigger projects for me has been finding curtains or, at the least, fabric with which to make curtains, so that our remaining uncovered windows cease to expose our lives to the world.

I've been frequenting our local chain fabric store and finally thought that I had found something that would work, but I waited too long! In only a few days, I returned to take a second look at the fabric and couldn't find it anywhere!

Which is totally okay, because my friend Carol and I went to this little fabric outlet shop up north that I've always wanted to go to, but have never stopped in to see what they had.

Bingo. Lots of great fabric. Reasonably priced (clearance/sale was $3.50-6/yd) for 53-54" widths.

I took a few sample swatches to see how they would work at home (something the chain store doesn't really do) and went back the next day because they worked really well. And... fabric:

Now, I've never actually bought so much fabric that the option has been given to have it rolled. It's pretty awesome. All neatly rolled.

I struggle to sit still when I have fabric to make specific projects, so I got right to work, piecing together a curtain for our bathroom. I used a sheer with a box pattern and paired it with a standard drapery liner for added privacy (I loved the flow of this fabric, and it wasn't too fussy either, which is a bonus sometimes). The pattern is a modification off of one in my sewing book - super simple.

I also found some of this aqua polka dot patterned chintz on the clearance rack for $4/yd, so I bought 7/8 yard and made a couple of new pillow slip covers for our living room. Our old ones were in the orange/red/yellow family, so they definitely needed some updating now that our old couch is gone...

One thing that is atypical here is that I pre-washed the chintz. I loved the pattern, but not necessarily the sheen. Additionally, since it was going to be for pillows, I wanted it to be softer and something I could remove and throw back in the wash if need be.

Again, a pretty easy process. The thing that seems to make any process more difficult is that the lower tension based bobbin holder (shuttle?) might be misshapen a bit, which means tension issues (and I do mean tension issues) galore. Though, it might be primarily limited to different stitch styles and trying to insert zippers... Ah, well. A few more things done. Next up: Kitchen curtains.