Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Mistreatment Alert!

Today, I put up my second mistreatment - and the first that I think I like.

We have two big beautiful windows on the front of our house, in our newly mostly-finished bedroom (you can see them nekkid in this post). They've been covered with a hot pink blanket since we started sleeping in our new place (really! since late November), but they haven't been at the top of the priority list. Well, today, I unpacked my tubs of sewing and crafting stuff and found a huge piece of lightweight denim that I discovered would work for these windows.

So, after my first round of throwing together a mistreatment, I realized that my perfectionist tendencies were going to drive me mad if I didn't do something to try and make sure this was going to be relatively straight and even. So measured the windows, marked 1.5" out to either side, and marked a line above the window with the level so that my perfectionist self could live with it. Okay, I also marked the middle, and the mid-way point on each side. I'm trying to relax, alright??


I took my material in to the table, folded it over a foot and put a few safety pins in so that I knew it would be mostly even. Also, on one piece, the end was not cut evenly. I folded it so that it would be even on the fold, then marked the fabric at ~12" so that I would know where to pin it. I also marked the middle and mid-points on each side on the fabric (where it wouldn't show when I put it up).


Then I took the material back to the window and tossed a bunch of upholstery tacks in my mouth. I simply tacked the material up so that the folded over part would hang down and be a "valance." This part was super easy and really, I could've done it without all the prep work... but like I said, I'm still growing.


Here's how the mistreatments turned out:


Now, these windows do need to be able to be covered completely for privacy's sake, but I want to actually see out of them during the day. I need light! And, I'll admit, they're a little dark and not very colorful. So, for now, I've cut some ribbon and tied them in the middle. The ribbon can easily be untied.


I'm not entirely sure of how they look being tied in the middle though. What do you think? Any suggestions?

And yes, the windows will eventually be finished with trim.  I'll probably need to move these at that time, but that's ok.

5 comments:

JessiTRON said...

I think it looks lovely tied in the middle!

Reagan said...

Great job! I love the valance idea, it adds a lot to make it look more finished.

Tracy Crowe Jones said...

I like it!

Our bedroom window treatments are very similar - although there was no sewing involved. I bought material, measured the window heigth, cut the material twice as long, draped it evenly on both sides over a copper tube placed at the top of each window and miraculously curtains were created. We use strips of material to tie them together in the middle. I think they are lovely, but it may just be because it's about the most domestic thing I've done in 15 years of marriage.

Genene said...

They look lovely; almost "perfect" =}
Great idea and so practical.

Genene said...

Although, I'm sure your neighbors are disappointed that they can no longer see that the new family is on the computer.