craft project: curtains…for the garage

When we moved into our house (December 2008), we knew we wanted to make a lot of changes/upgrades to the house, but some things would have to wait.

We were too lazy to change out the curtains in the garage, which the previous owners had oh-so-generously left behind. They left curtains on one door that leads outside, as well as in our extra room where the furnace resides. So every day we see this:

Last year, during my fabric craze, I ordered 8 yards of fabric that I thought I was going to use in our bedroom. And then the husband told me he wasn’t a huge fan of the fabric. I had to figure out what to do with it, and while I cut out one project (which still hasn’t been sewn), I still had about 3 or so yards left. And then on Sunday, I knew what I wanted to do with it.

Make pretty curtains for the garage door. (I was totally avoiding cleaning out the office, because, really, the garage needs pretty curtains before we prepare a nursery McLittle to live in.) I know there are millions of modern options when it comes to Window treatment, but I just love the homely look of handmade curtains.

I still had some iron-on tape that I used on our bathroom curtains, so there was really no sewing involved. I worked for about an hour on Sunday, and about 90 minutes tonight and this is the end result:

A close-up of the fabric:


I still love the fabric. And if I had to do it over again, I’d probably really check my measurements. I had too much fabric for the two panels, and had a hard time getting them onto the curtain rod. I had to iron on the hem tape a couple of times to get everything to stay. If I ever feel I have the time and I’m dying to have them perfect, I’ll run the pieces through the sewing machine.

The next room I want to tackle curtain-wise is this one:

Doesn’t that just scream 1970s??