Dabbled

Tutorial: Super easy (& inexpensive) french door curtains

…or (almost) no-sew ‘two seams and you’re done’ curtains you can make in less than an hour.

We have a GREAT sunroom. It’s got a huge vaulted ceiling and french doors on both sides and lots of windows. But, we also have a computer at a desk in the corner, and the light from the windows can cause a glare on the screen. Hence the need to occasionally cover up these gorgeous windows with some sort of curtain. And curtains or shaded on french doors are really a pain in the butt to me. They either get in the way, or they are clunky and unattractive, so I had avoided doing anything about the glaring window til forced to by nagging husband and kiddo.

So, I wanted a solution that would be easy to make, easy to remove, and look nice while it was up there. So what’s the secret? Well, note the 5 lovely buttonholes at the top of each panel. Does that give you any hints? It’s a shower curtain! We found a pretty black cotton waffle weave shower curtain at Target for less than $20. And it’s held up by buttoning the button holes onto pushpins stuck in the door. I used clear ones, but you could also do this with some really fun and funky push pins.

Materials:

10 clear (or interesting) push pins.
1 standard size shower curtain of a nice material, like cotton, with 10 holes at the top. [I originally wanted one with grommets at the top, but didn't find one, and I think the button holes by themselves work fine.]
Sewing machine (or a needle and thread and a bit more time and patience than I possess.) Pins, Scissors, matching thread.

How to do the transformation:

Cut the shower curtain in half down the middle.
Starting with the Left half: Measure the distance from the left seam to the first button hole. Fold your right seam and pin all the way down, the same distance from the 5th (last) buttonhole.
Noting the size of the hem on the left side, stitch down the right hand side with a similar size hem.
Trim the excess fabric.
Repeat with the right half.
Hold up your curtain to the door and determine where you want it to hang, and mark each button hole.
Stick pushpins where you marked, then just slide the buttonholes onto the pushpins!
Easy peasy mac and cheesy, you are done. The curtains can be folded back on themselves to let in light, or removed altogether, easily.

There are some really cool shower curtain patterns and fabrics out there, so you can really get creative with this project. Just make sure you pick one that has 10 evenly spaced holes, meant for inserting the shower curtain rings.

That’s all there is to it… hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial and it inspires you to make something cool ! There are some more sewing type projects in the Related Posts box below, so if you like this, go check them out too…

cheers,

dot

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Easter Idea Roundup

Pretty boiled eggs (so you can tell them apart from the raw ones in the fridge!)

boil eggs with onion skins for a pretty brown egg color

I hesitate to publish this right before Easter, as it’s really a year round egg hack, not an easter egg hack, but I suppose it is extra useful at Easter, where you might want some pretty brown eggs.

If you’re looking for fancier Easter egg ideas, you can find some here, here, .. and an Easter basket here.

So I usually buy a big thing of eggs, and boil a handful of them ahead of time to throw in lunchboxes or to make tuna salad with, or whatever, and I like to be able to tell them apart from the non-boiled at a glance. I used to take a sharpie and mark the ends (maybe with a little face so it would be cute in kid’s lunch), but this is my new plan, and I love it.

Also, I love the look of brown eggs, but I’m not going to pay extra for them just because they are aesthetically pleasing.

So, my solution? Whenever I boil eggs, I throw in a handful of onion skins (I pretty much always have a bag of yellow onions on hand) and a dash of vinegar.

By the time the eggs are done, they are also a lovely peachy brown color.… [ KEEP READING ]

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So Long spammers, and Goodbye to (some) comments

Hello all… Dot here. Yes, I still love you guys, but the eternal war with spammers has brought me to a crossroads. Dear spammers: No, none of my readers want to buy your essay, really–And the comments have always be ‘no-follow’, so Google doesn’t even notice your link. But telling them this has been in vain, so I’ve made the decision to get rid of WordPress comments, and have only Facebook comments.

Why now?

If you’ve been around the crafty/bloggy web as long as I have (2007!), you’ll have noticed that the importance of comments has changed dramatically over the past few years. I used to only be able to tell how popular a post or project was by either looking at the stats, or getting feedback in the comments. Comments were the way we all communicated, and I will say between blog comments and Twitter, that was the way I built some great relationships! But times have changed, and blogging/craft-blogging has changed with the rise of social media as a real force. I don’t control the conversation anymore, my projects are floating around Pinterest, or shared in a variety of other social ways. People don’t want to talk about it here, they want to talk about it with their friends.… [ KEEP READING ]