Quick, Tacky, But Satisfying: My 30-Minute Window Treatment

Surprise! It's me.

I hadn't intended to post again any time soon, but the other day I whipped out a project that was so quick and easy, I felt it would be remiss of me not to share it with the rest of you fellow crafting wannabees out there in cyberland. 

I've been intending to shorten my living room drapes for months, and after taking the Christmas decorations down, the living room looked so bare and blah, I decided the time had come. But the prospect of cutting into the vintage fiberglass fabric made me shrink and cringe, and the ghastly job of hemming the vast expanses of the panels, especially in my still-cluttered and overcrowded sewing room, sent waves of tedium crashing through my soul. I simply couldn't face it. I was preparing to rehang the unaltered drapes up again when I had a brainstorm. (Or was it a brain glitch?)

At any rate, I remembered I had an old, worn-out chenille bedspread stashed away. One of those "someday I'll think of something to do with this" textiles. The borders were in good condition but the middle was worn away almost to "see-thru-nighty" state. In crafty parlance, this was a chenille "cutter", if you'd like to find one for yourself--there are lots of them on Etsy and eBay.

Anyway, it was just the right color--happy tangerine orange, and with a few swift cuts and seams, I had a new set of living room curtains!

Here's basically what I did:

The dotted lines were where I cut the pieces. I only needed three, and the middle (unmarked) bits on the diagram were left over for another project.

Notice this had curved edges at the bottom. That's what gave me the idea. Perfect for a valance.  All I had to do was turn the edge under a bit, sew a quick seam, and I had a rod pocket.

The side bits were only slightly more involved. I first turned the raw edge (long side) under on each one, stitched it, and then turned the top bit down and stitched a simple rod pocket there. I didn't even bother to hem because the bedspread had finished edges.

Rah, rah!!  The whole project took maybe half an hour. 

Now, granted, my husband made a few mocking noises when he saw what I was up to, and my oldest son popped in yesterday and laughed a bit, but my youngest was duly appreciative and impressed and, as his is a more visual approach to life, I figured his opinion was the one I trust. 

Anyway, every day I look at it and get a charge out of it all over again! It's hokey, I know, but so cheery and the color really brightens up the room. And I feel good knowing I actually made something and recycled--nay, as the "real" crafters say, I upcycled-- something to boot. For tiebacks, I had a yard of vintage pompom trim in just the right contrasting turquoise/aqua colors so I whipped the sides back with lengths of this.

I think this is a (was) a full-sized bedspread, but it may have been a twin. Can't remember rightly. But it doesn't matter. Use what you have and adjust it to your window size.

Okay, here it is. Pretend I have washed my windows.

You can see how the color pops and that is such a treat on these dark, wet, Pacific Northwest winter days.