Homemaking

If you haven't figured it out yet, I draw most of my inspiration from Pinterest. I am not super creative on my own, but put an idea in my head, and I will run away with it in many different directions. Many of the projects that I save on Pinterest, and plan on completing, are not usually done exactly how the tutorial says or how the image looks. With that in mind, here we go...

Sewing is something that has always intimidated me. My dad could do enough to fix holes in my shirts or put buttons back on. I didn't think it would ever be something that I would be interested in doing. Then I got married and started thinking about the possibility of a family. The first real Christmas I spent with my husband and his family, my nephew was 6 months old and it was his first Christmas. My sister-in-law pulled out her sewing machine to make him his own stocking as a member of their little family. I saw those three stockings hanging together on Christmas Eve, and the only thought I had was that I had to do that for my family. So for Christmas last year, which will have its own dedicated post (I went a little crazy!), I made stockings. I made them. With a sewing machine. Something I never thought would happen. From there, it started a sort of addiction. I started looking at all of the different things that I could make with a sewing machine: curtains, baby blankets, bibs, burp cloths, etc. It had so many practical and decorative uses. I asked a friend if I could have her old one because she got a new one. Turns out, I didn't even have to do that. My mother-in-law was paying attention to my new obsession, and bought me one for Christmas. She got me a Singer sewing machine and many of the accessories that went with it like bobbins, thread, scissors, a piece of fabric to practice among other things that go with someone getting their first sewing machine.

At this point, the project ideas seemed endless, but I kept coming back to one: curtains. After seeing my sister-in-law's curtains at their old house, and knowing that it wasn't too difficult to do, I wanted to make my own. It just seemed like a personal touch that makes your house that much more a home. First, I had to pick out fabric. That was an adventure. But after several trips to Joann Fabrics, Field's Fabrics, and Hobby Lobby, I finally picked one.

This is a home decor fabric, and I ended up buying the last 6 yards that they had. The fabric was originally $9.99 per yard, but was on sale for $6.99 per yard, and I also had a 20% your entire regular price and sale price purchase, so the total for the fabric was $36 which is not too shabby considering all I have to make.


First on the agenda was the window above our sink. Something about it looked unfinished, and I thought that curtains would be the perfect touch. I browsed on Pinterest, and found this image. I think it was originally more about the wreath than the curtains, but I liked the design of the curtains, and my husband loved the checkered pattern for the kitchen. Obviously, I convinced him otherwise! We decided to do a simple tension rod in the window frame which worked out perfectly size-wise. Our window measured 36 inches wide and 36 long from the top of the window to the windowsill. The fabric that I purchased was 45 inches wide and I cut a little more than 1 yard of fabric off of my 6 yards for the sake of hemming and creating the loop at the top for the curtain rod.






I kept the entire 45 inch width to start and cut the fabric into two equal pieces at 22.5 inches. I wanted the design to be vertical which will eventually match the French door curtains that I am going to make. Even with the total width of the window being 36 inches, I kept as much width as I could for the gathers at the top. Laying the curtain panels long-ways, I hemmed both the left and the right side 1 inch leaving me with a 20.5 inch wide panel. I pinned and sewed the hem on each side in white thread. Then I had to consider the top and the bottom. The bottom I hemmed 0.5 inch for a nice clean look. For the top, I folded the fabric over 1.5 inches. This was the hem and the loop for the curtain rod all in one. I did not hem and then fold again for the loop. This still gave me a total hem of 2 inches. The curtain rod slipped right through, and I now have curtains above my sink as shown in the picture, excuse the dishes!

I went from being completely intimidated by sewing and using a sewing machine to wanting to do everything I could to use it and make different things for around the house.

 With my remaining yards of fabric, I've got 5 left, I plan to make these. We just got brand new French doors installed in our kitchen that lead out to our deck. Traditional curtains are hard for French doors because of the way they open, so my husband and I started browsing curtain ideas on Pinterest and found these. We plan on finding magnetic curtain rods, Bed Bath and Beyond has them, and then I will be using my trusty sewing machine to make the curtains. Post on that coming as soon as it happens! This probably will not occur until sometime after school gets out, or unless I feel extra motivated during the week when I get home from work. Measuring and putting all of those pins in gets to be a pain in the back after a while!

Until next time...