DIY Tab Curtains

So our bedroom was lacking... something. We have wanted to redo it for a while, new chest of drawers, pictures on the wall etc, but while we lack the funds to do it all at once we thought that new curtains might be a good start. We went looking in Spotlight, for their pre-made ones, however none of the designs or even colours of the big block ones were what we wanted, so we started brownsing in the upholstery/DIY curtains section and voila! A fabric that we both liked.

I bought 4m for $40 and then, the next day, realised I needed more for the tabs along the top, so bought another 50cm. Total $47.50 ($2.50 for the thread).

First step was to cut the 4m piece of fabric in two. Cats don't help too much, esp as they chase the scissors. Don't be fooled by her innocent look in this picture.


I then took the 50cm piece of fabric and cut it into 15cm strips along the width of the fabric. These I then cut into 2. These are for the tabs along the top. Sew up one side with right sides facing and you have your tabs. I made 12 tabs, 6 for each curtain.

Sew up the edges of the big 2m bits of fabric, I left the selvidges on so made sure I had a little bit of the pattern turned over and sewed up both sides.

Then I turned the top over 5cm, pinned 6 at equal spacing points along the top, making sure there was one at the beginning and end. Then did a double line of stitching, one at the top, and one at the bottom of the fold.


Time for hemming. Folded the bottom up twice to form a heavier base to pull the curtains down and sewed along the top. Iron the seams and you're done.


Before:


After:

Craft Projects 2009

To follow off from last years craft projects here is that updated list with a few new items:

To do:

1. Original Quilt (Created back in like 2002 - 2003, the top is all together, just have to do the backing quilting and binding)
2. Cross stitch given to me by K (Haven't started it yet, was focusing on the Enchantress one)

Half Done:

1. 21st Quilt - Combined the squares and it looks good. Now to do a border and then quilt it together.
2. Enchantress Cross-stitch - Have not touched it all year. Unlikely to touch it again before the end of the year.
3. Crocheted Amigurami - Need to do her shell and she's done.
4. Finish off the dress I'm making for myself. It was going to be a template for the ball in Oct, however as I found The Perfect Dress the urgency to finish it isn't there anymore.

Completed:

1. Mum's Christmas present
   
2. Crocheted a hat and scarf and gloves. They were fun.

21st Quilt

So this is my 21st quilt placed together. Only been 5 years but its all good.

Theres a row on blank ones all around the edges then up the top you can kinda see my idea for the border: Longer strips of each of the colours all the way around the outside.

Soft Tam Beret

This pattern was used from

http://creativeyarn.blogspot.com/2007/10/new-soft-tam-beret.html



Took me maybe 2 hours, was so easy to do.

Craft Projects

So its come to my attention that I haven't actually completed a craft project since before I went to Singapore in 2004. I have 5 craft projects on the go at the moment and I really shouldn't start a new one until these are done.

1. Original Quilt (Created back in like 2002 - 2003, the top is all together, just have to do the backing quilting and binding)
2. 21st Quilt (My 21st was in April 2004 and all the blocks are still blocks. I really should combine them)
3. Enchantress Cross-stitch (Working on this one for AAAAAAAAGES)
4. Mum's Christmas present (Needless to say this needs to be done by Christmas. But its about 1/2 done at the moment so another couple days of sewing should finish it)
5. Cross stitch given to me by K (Haven't started it yet, was focusing on the Enchantress one)
   

I really need to get back into the habit of sewing while watching TV and given that we're watching at least one episode of supernatural a night at the moment thats a good 40 minutes of sewing time.

The quilts will be a little harder as they require sewing machines or me figuring out how to quilt (or machine quilt as the case may be).