Going Paperless: A Window Treatment Transformation

For the past five years, I’ve been on a mission to destroy all of the temporary paper shades that we put up to cover the windows when we first moved in our house. It’s been a slow process because A) I just don’t want to spend a lot of money; and B) some of our windows are odd sizes which makes it a bit tricky. But so far I’ve gotten through our living room and master bedroom, and this past weekend I finally de-papered the guest bedroom.

Close-up of the shade in all its pleated, papery glory

This particular window is about 45” wide by 46” high. Based on my experience, I hadn’t seen any window treatments to fit those dimensions, and I wasn't going to pay to custom order something. So I was going to have to get creative. There's definitely no shortage of DIY curtains on Pinterest, from drop cloth curtains to tablecloth curtains to no-sew roman shades.

DIY Jumbo Dog Bed Under $30

My latest DIY project was one born of necessity, not just the urge to be crafty. And it wasn’t even to benefit me – it was for the fur-kids.

We have a boxer and a big mutt (I say that with love), and at about 45 pounds and 75 pounds respectively, they require a sizable dog pillow. In fact, up until recently we had one 30” x 40” pillow for each dog, which took up a lot of space on the floor of our small living room. And half the time, they just ended up squeezing onto the same pillow anyway (they love to snuggle).

Overall, our dogs are pretty good about not chewing things up. But something must have gotten into them because they started chewing on one of the corners during the day while the hubby and I were at work. And once they discovered the stuffing inside, it was all over. We would come home to pillow guts all over the living room. Not good.

Look ma, no sewing!

Earlier this week, I was majorly inspired by Sara's DIY "curtains" over at Russet Street Reno. (In fact, you can see them over there on my list of DIY projects I want to copy.) I've been looking for some window treatments for the large window in our guest bedroom, which is currently covered with a bedsheet that's become much more permanent than it was supposed to be. Embarrassing. But I've been too cheap to buy any curtains because all the ones I've seen are so expensive (especially the 96" length, which is what we need). Sara's curtains looked very do-able and required no sewing, thanks to Stitch Witchery. Seeing as how I don't sew, I liked the sound of that!

So this morning, I headed out to Hobby Lobby to see if I could find some cheap fabric for this project. I didn't find anything I was crazy about there, so I ended up next door at Hancock Fabrics where they were having a big sale. I don't go fabric-shopping very often, so I was overwhelmed by all the different kinds. I was there for over an hour trying to figure out what to use, until I starting thinking that maybe I should try this on a project of a smaller scale first. The curtains were seeming pretty intimidating.

Coincidentally enough, I've also been looking for a runner for our dining room table. We have placemats now, but they seem to overwhelm the table, and I'd prefer something that disguises the hideous gap running down the middle:

So I decided to look for some fabric I could use for a runner instead. I ended up finding some on clearance for only $3 a yard. It had a similar look to our plain placemats, but I wanted something simple so I could still sit things on it without looking too busy. I got 2 1/2 yards just to be on the safe side, for a grand total of $7.97. I also picked up some 1/4" Steam-A-Seam 2 Double Stick fusible fabric iron-on hemming (that's a mouthful!) I got a 20-yard roll for $4.99. I was going to get Stitch Witchery, but the lady I talked to said that if I was going to do curtains, the Steam-A-Seam was more durable, so I took her word for it.

When I got home, I cut out a panel about 74" long by 16" wide. (The fabric was 54" wide, so I have plenty left for another project in the future... or another runner, in case I screwed this one up)  Using the Steam-A-Seam was pretty simple, but it took time to make sure that I was folding the hem over into a straight line. I'm sure there are more efficient ways of doing this type of thing, but I just used a measuring tape and measured every so often to make sure my width was consistent. 

Taking Sara's advice, I ironed the hem first without the adhesive in it, so I had a nice fold as a guide. Then I just cut strips of Steam-A-Seam and placed them inside the fold, removed the backing, and folded the hem over. 10 to 15 seconds with the iron, and voila! A no-sew hem! Amazing.

I repeated the process until I was done with both of the long sides. Then, I just used the trusty ol' eyeball method (shhhh, don't tell my husband) to fold over the two short sides. I used two strips on each side just for good measure.

When I was finished, I trimmed the excess hem just to clean it up a bit. It's the type of fabric that frays super-easy, so there were threads all over the place by the time I was finished. For that reason, I'm not sure I want to wash this runner much, unless I find a way to keep the edges from fraying. Any tips?

So it's not beautiful on the underside, but who's ever going to know? (Besides you.) You seamstresses out there would probably scoff at me for my feeling of accomplishment -- and rightly so -- but I'm so proud, I could just burst at the steam-a-seams! Ha.

I brought out a few PartyLite candle holders from our bedroom to dress it up a little, and I think this is a definite upgrade from the placemats. For an hour and a half worth of work, and coming in at under $10 (not including the Steam-A-Seam), that's hard to beat! 

So now that I've conquered this project, I think I might be ready to move up to curtain panels for the guest bedroom (and maybe other rooms?!). I have a feeling it'll take me a lot longer to pick out the fabric for those, but I hope to get around to it soon! The bedsheet must come down.

I think this Steam-A-Seam is going to open up a whole new world of possibilities that I previously thought was out of reach! Thanks again to Sara for the inspiration!

Update: I was so proud of my table runner, I linked this post up to the Saturday Nite Special party over at Funky Junk Interiors.