Another Peek Upstairs

I've said before, that I don't like to let people see my upstairs. Today, I thought I'd show you another reason why. This window--Jesse and I purchased it in Fredericksburg, back when we were living in San Antonio. I was so excited when we bought our house because I finally had the perfect place to hang it--in our upstairs hallway window! It was going to be such a pretty greeting as you came up the stairs, I thought. But Jesse didn't like how the bottom half of the window was exposed to the backyard and anyone who was curious enough to look. Who would look? I'm not sure.  We're not that exciting!

Anyway, he decided to fix our bottom half of the window his own way-- with a baby towel. Needless to say, I wasn't thrilled, but didn't have another solution on hand so that was the end. It's been hanging there for almost four years now. Bleh! At one point recently, I found a curtain I liked at Urban Outfitters for $15, but then when I realized that shipping was going to add another $8 to the total, I chickened out and didn't buy.

Then last week, my cousin, Emily took me to sale and I found vintage fabric--fill a bag for $1.50. One of them was this, I thought maybe I'd make a summer dress out of it for Eliana. When I got home, I realized that it was actually 3 yards worth. More than enough to make a dress... and enough to make a curtain, too.

First I hemmed the bottom.

Then I cut 9-8 inch pieces of biased tape. (I bought a box of vintage bias tape for a couple bucks a few years ago.) After that I folded them in half and ironed them flat.

I pinned them evenly inside the top hem... alternating colors as I went along.

My technique for finding where to place the next one didn't require any math skills. I just brought two of the pieces of tape together to find the middle--where the next piece should go. After they were pinned in I sewed the hem.

When the hem was done, I ironed the bias tape tabs up.

And then, I got into my stash of vintage buttons ($2 for the jar) and sewed buttons to the front to keep the tabs up in the right position.

I took down the old bent curtain rod that was over the window. And placed a different one (that had been on the wall in Jesse's closet for some odd reason) in it's place.

As far as I can figure, this project cost me a total of $0.88 (50¢ fabric; 20¢ bias tape; 18¢ buttons; free vintage thread from my momma). Not bad.

And now this is what I'll see in the evening.

And this is what I'll see during the day. And I can live with that... and maybe allow more people to see my upstairs in the future.