Making a Balloon Shade from a Panel Curtain (Deployment Projects #148 &149)

You may notice that my project #’s are out of order this week - - I had written this post last week but I forgot to post it!  :)

 

I picked up a set of pink gingham panel curtains at a local thrift store for $2 each.    After I got them home, I decided that I really would rather have them as balloon shade toppers instead of long panels.  So, here is the quick and easy tutorial of how I did it!

Start with one of your long panels.  Trim off somewhere around 21” from the bottom of your panel.  I did this for two reasons: 1. the total 72” is too long for a balloon shade, it just makes it way too bulky and 2.  I wanted to make some matching pillows, so the 21” from each panel is sufficient for two pillows. 

 

Next, you will need to hem the bottom of the curtain - - just folding and ironing over the edge twice and then sewing it along the bottom.  I decided to add a ball trim to the bottom edge of the curtains, of course this is optional.

Next, you are going to use 1” wide two strand shirring tape.  This is the best stuff!  You can find it buy the yard at most fabric stores in the upholstery and drapery supplies section.  You are going to need three pieces per panel, each piece cut to the length of your panel minus about 6”.

Attach the shirring tape by sewing a straight line down the outside edges of each piece.   Just be careful not to sew over the solid white line.  The white line is where the string is hiding that you are going to pull to make your shade bunch!

You will be attaching 3 pieces of shirring tape to each panel.  One on each outside edge and one in the center.  To be honest with you, I just eyeballed it and sewed it on - - it is going to be bunched together, so it doesn’t have to be too exact.  Make sure that at the bottom of the tape, you secure all the way across the edge.  I like to sew across the bottom edge of the tape 5 or 6 times just to be sure that I catch those strings in there - - otherwise when you go to pull them,  you will just pull the string right out.

Now comes the easy part.  Grab the two strings and just start pulling.  Your fabric will gather as you pull the strings and you will probably have to ease your fabric down along the tape, but just work with it and pull it until it give you the tightness (or looseness) that you are looking for.

 

Continue this for all three pieces of tape.  When you have those strings pulled tight, take the two from each tape and tie them in a knot.

And that is all - - -see, I told you it was super easy.  Not bad for $4.00!  It took be about a total of 20 minutes to do both panels.   Since the panels already had rod pockets in them, all you have to do it put them on your rod and hang them up.  I think the hardest part it just trying to take a good picture of curtains hanging in a window!!

    Don’t we have fabulous views out our windows?  :)  What a lovely house my neighbors have, so glad we get to look at it every day! 

Guestroom Projects!

Welcome back to my guestroom!  Today were going to take a closer look at some of the projects in the room!

Did you notice those pictures on the wall?  I needed something to fill up that long white wall.  I had a book of shell prints, but no frames to fit them.  Remember, I was only using what I had in the house, so I had to get creative!  So, I carefully tore the pictures out of the book.

Can you see what I used to hang them?  T-pins.  Yup, I just stole them from my sewing table and pushed them in the wall.

I got creative on one and just added a little metal number tag.  It happened to be hanging out on my sewing table by the T-pins, so I just grabbed it and added it in.  I like to throw unexpected items in my decorating.  It makes people really look and be entertained by the details.

 

What do you think of my beach sign?    It makes me so happy!

 

I made it -- - in like 15 minutes!

I wanted something big for the opposite wall and I really wanted it to be my focal point.  It is the first wall you see when you look in the room AND this room is right at the top of our stairs, so you see it every time you go up or down the stairs.  I had the hooks and numbers sitting in the garage -- - I had bought them at Lowes a few months back I think the hooks were around $3 each and the numbers were $2.  So my total cost was $25

To make the sign, I screwed together three boards of slightly different widths and lengths.   I got the boards for free at a garage sale - - I didn’t cut even trim them down.   I left a little gap between each of the boards.  Then I quickly painted the boards with some blue paint I had on hand - - and when I say quick, I mean quick!  I just slapped it on there, letting the wood show through in some places.

After that, I sanded down the edges, screwed on the hooks, and nailed on the numbers.

To finish it off, I used my white sharpie paint pen (love it!) to write the word “beach” along the top.  It didn’t show up quite enough for me, so I grabbed my black sharpie pen and outlined the letters.

   

How about this little quick project…

 

Again, I apologize for forgetting about before pictures - - I get in the moment and forget to document, the creative juices are just flowing and I just keep going!   I had these fabulous family pictures and I really wanted to put them in the room.  Some people say you shouldn’t use family pictures in your decorating.  I say it’s my house, my family, and my pictures and I should decorate with what makes me happy!  And my family and my family pictures make me happy - - so dog-gone-it, I’m going to use them!

I had picked up this frame from Home Goods when we still lived in CA for $2.00.  I was white, banged up and had some crazy pictures in the openings.  I gave it a fresh coat of paint, cut scrapbook paper to fit the openings, and put one picture in each of the openings.  $2 art… You can’t beat that!

By the way - - -check out those pictures in the frame - - -are they not the best?!!  Those were our pre-deployment, pre-moving, family pictures done by the very talented Missie from Sunflower Studio.  We traded talent.  I re-upholstered a chair for her and she took our family pictures!

I still have some details to finish for the room, but really, the biggest thing I am missing for this room - - is guests!!  Whose coming for a visit?  I have 4 weeks to fill up before Handsome Hubby comes home for his two weeks of Rest and Relaxation (R&R).   Hoping these 4 weeks FFFFLLLLLYYYYYY by!

Guest Room Re-do (Deployment Projects #148-153)

So…. How was your weekend?  Mine?  So glad you asked!  It was CRAZY!!!!  Not crazy like we were running all around town to this and that - - nope, never even left the house the entire weekend except to go to church this morning.  Not crazy like my kids were driving me nuts and I was inches away from disowning them - - nope, they got along great this weekend!

NOPE, it was CRAZY exciting!  Now, granted, not as exciting as it will be when my beloved comes home, but exciting none the less!   It started Friday night when I decided that our guestroom needed a make-over.  I’m like that, I get random ideas, and then just act on them – sometimes not even thinking the whole idea through before hand.  For example, I probably should have thought ahead to the fact that I am still in the middle of re-doing my kids rooms.  Yes, that would be two rooms completely in upheaval and I decided to add a third room to the mess!

Of course, it was also exciting on Saturday morning when I got up and checked email and had blog comments galore!  I had to go and see what this was all about.  Nester - - - that’s what it was all about!!!  I jumped over to her site and what was greeting me?  A picture of me and my beautiful children!  I was on her Saturday Bird Watching!  How exciting - - and welcome to all my new followers!!!!

 

So, after I got over my huge shock from Nesting Place and came back down from cloud 9, it was back to the guestroom re-do.

It was such a random idea, that I didn’t even stop to take before pictures - - -which is a real shame now because it would be so much fun to show you the before pictures at this point!  But, I guess if I was going to be completely honest it wasn’t decorated before….at all.  I had hung curtains (but they had fallen out of the wall three times   - lack of anchors and kids playing hide and seek in them will do that!) so there were no curtains any more and I had just thrown and orange quilt on the bed.  There was a Mickey Mouse TV gracing the dresser and all the furniture was in the wrong place making the room feel even smaller than it is.

So I got the gumption and just started moving furniture around (with the help of my very strong 9 year old!), got rid of the old curtain rods that wouldn’t stay in the wall anyway, added anchors and hung new curtains, made some pillows for the bed, shopped the house for accessories, made some art for the wall and improvised where needed!

I decided that I wasn’t going to leave the house to do this room.  I decided everything needed to come from the house - - re-use, re-purpose, borrowed from another room or taken from my stash.

So, without any before shots to share with you, here are the after!

I started by moving the bed in front of the window.  Originally it was coming out from the wall where the beach sign is.  It made the room so tight, you could barely walk through the room.  So much roomier now!

 

Next, I changed out the bedding.  I went all white.   I have  a long standing policy with Hubby - - if the hotel doesn’t have white bedding, I’m not staying there.  It just makes me feel like the room is clean and fresh.  So I did the same for our guest room.

Next I hung up some new curtains.  I used rotating cafe rods.  Two reasons I went with these:  1.  these windows are super wide and getting a rod that is long enough requires taking out a loan and 2.  I happened to have these rods on hand!  I had bought them on clearance years ago knowing that I would need them “one day.” 

 

I also squeezed in a small corner cabinet next to the bed, making sure the clock is visible from the bed and that you can turn the lamp off from the bed.  It is a stretch, but there is nothing worse than being in a house you don’t know and you have to walk from the light switch to the bed in complete darkness!

I was able to fit in a small antique dresser, the perfect place to store the guest towels, sheets and extra blankets.  I like to put dryer sheets in the drawers to keep everything smelling fresh!   I also had room to put a small reading chair in the corner with a floor lamp.  The chair is from my Grandma.  I was originally going to re-do the chair.  Painting it and re-upholstering it, but it is in fabulous condition and it has so much sentimental value to me, I just couldn’t do it.  Now that I have it in this room and the color works perfectly, I am so glad I didn’t touch the chair!!

Speaking of sentimental things - - the bed was our wedding gift from Handsome Hubby’s parents.  Would it give it a more beachy, cottage feel if I painted it white?  Yes, but again, sometimes the sentimental side wins! 

Well, now that I have shown you the complete “after” pictures, you will have to come back tomorrow to see some of the projects I did for this room.  I’m so excited about them, here are some sneak peeks!

 

  

  

Spring Break

Wow!  What a great response to the “Half Way There” post and contest!  Thank you all so much for your encouragement during this deployment.  It feels good to be on the down-hill side, but it does feel like time is starting to go slower!

This past week was a productive week for me!  One of my best friends from college was here.  We did exactly what I thought we would do - - lots of pampering, shopping and late nights!  It was fabulous!  We also celebrated Charise’s 7th Birthday.

I did actually get some projects done while she was here, nothing big, but since we are counting, I thought I would share them with you.  But first, the big news of the day is that Re-upholstery 201 will be starting tomorrow and continuing through the rest of the week.  Many of you have been asking for a tutorial on a more complicated chair or even couches, so this next project is a great “stepping up in difficulty” project!

One of my first projects  (#55) to report is the most obvious.  I’ve been “spring cleaning” on my blog.  It was getting too messy and too busy - - so I went for a cleaner look…BUT now all my pictures have resized and things aren’t laying out correctly.  I wish I was more computer smart - - but that just wasn’t one of the gifts God gave me.  So – hang with me as I attempt to figure this all out!

None of my other projects were overly exciting  this week, but since we are keeping count, here is a quick list!

1 more bag (Project #56)

 

3 more pillows (Projects #57 – #59)

3 sets of curtains (Projects #60 - #62)

 

this is also a quick peek at a bigger project I am working on - - but more on that one later!

This set of curtains was a “re-make” of some curtains we found at World Market - - loved the fabric, but they needed to be tweaked a little.  I’m still waiting for “after” pictures, so for now you can just enjoy the beauty of the fabric!!

Join me tomorrow as we get started on a new chair for Re-upholstery 201