Create your own curtains (Curtains)

Member Name: TigerTiger

Product:	Curtains
Date:	12/03/01 (9823 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You get curtains or blinds that no-one else has; you get to put you in your house; cheaper than buying ready made curtains; you can update when you like

Disadvantages: Takes some time, so depends how much your time is worth; artistic flair is a bonus; need some space and patience

Recently I moved into my own place, after years in rented accomodation it was really quite exciting having somewhere that was mine and that I could do with as I pleased. My mum always told me that it was the smaller things that you often don't think about that cost the money and yes as much as I hate to admit it she was right! Curtains were one of those things that I didn't really think about and consequently I found that I didn't have a great deal of money for. My mum actually agreed to get me some made for my lounge and dining room an main bedroom, but the rest were my responsibility. As ever I found my way around it, I made them, but with a twist!

My kitchen was natural wood blended with stainless steel and I wanted something that went well with this. I could have opted for a plain coloured blind, but I have always been very artistic and saw it as an opportunity to put a little bit of me into the room.

I went out to the Dunhelm Mill Shop, which is always a great place to find some really good priced material and the actual ready made curtains are not a bad price there either. I bought loads of the thick cream material Calico which is really affordable and I aimed to make all the rest of my curtains and blinds from that. Quite plain and boring you could say, well I have to agree which is why I livened them up a bit.

*******HAND PAINTED CURTAINS/BLINDS*********

I am sure that many of you will see the words hand painted and be running a mile as we speak. I am lucky in that I am artistic, yet I think that with a little practice most people could do what I did and here is how I went about it.

I decided that I wanted cream blinds with a silver pattern on for my kitchen. I firstly cut off a piece of material that was quite a big bigger than required when hemmed and finished off. I ironed it so that it was straight with no kinks in it, a perfect canvas to start on. Now, there are various options you can take to
paint blinds and curtains. I opted to go for thr easiest stamp print for my first attempt.

Material - £2.50
Scissors - my own
****Cost so far -----> £2.50*******

1. WHAT COLOUR DO YOU WANT?
Firstly, you must decide on the colour of paint that you require. I knew that I wanted silver paint and so went to my local DIY store and bought the smallest can of silver paint that I could find. It doesn't actually have to be fabric paint as I discovered after reading a book on the matter. I spent roughly £3 on my little pot though.

little pot of silver paint - £3.00
****Cost so far -----> £5.50*******

2. WHAT PATTERN DO YOU WANT?
Choosing the pattern was less simple. I knew I wanted something modern to match the colour and style of the kitchen, but was a little unsure as to what. I found that magazines were a good starting point and I am not saying that you have to run out and spend money on a home or design magazine. Some of the best ideas and inspirations come from magazines like Cosmopolitan which have great images in their fashion sections. Adverts are also a great inspiration. I decided on a small jagged print which was very simple, but often as I have discovered simple can be best as any more gets too fussy.

Magazines - my own
****Cost so far -----> £5.50*******

3. HOW DO I GET MY PATTERN INTO PRINT?
There are various solutions at this stage, some simple and some requiring a little bit more effort. The easiest way is to create a stamp and re-use it over and over again as that way you are pretty much guarenteed a similar print. You can actually buy ready made prints from places like B and I did check these out. They don't have a huge range, but they have some nice simple prints which I may have considered if I had less time. These cost about £8 and I think that is quite an expense for something you may never use again, I also think there are cheaper ways to do it.

I w
ent and bought a 30p sponge from my local shop, it was just a regular firm sponge. I then copied the shape that I wanted onto the sponge with a felt tip pen and cut it out with a pen knife. I actually did cut a few out as it is useful to have more than one when they get all painted up and require washing especially. I then tipped my paint into a painting tray that I already had, although to save money an empty margarine container would be equally useful.

I had my material laid out flat on the floor with a sheet underneath it. I opted for a sheet as I feared newspaper may print onto the cream material. I then decided which way up the material was going to go as curtains and decided where to start the pattern. I guess you could be more methodical about it and plot out where each pattern is going to go, but I just went for it and randomly placed the prints.

The best way to ensure that you get an even print is to firstly dip the print into the paint and then touch up with a small paint brush, it is also a good idea to even out the paint on the sponge as if one area is more heavily dipped in paint then it may squelch out the side and ruin your material. My tip is not to be fearful of stamping and just confidently go for it and firmly place the stamp on the material.

You are then free to stamp away until you get the desired look. Hopefully this will be as problem free as possible.

Felt tip pen - my own
pen knife - my own
Sponge - 30p
margarine container or painting tray
small paint brush - 50p
****Cost so far -----> £6.30*******

4. HOW DO I GET MY PATTERN TO STAY ON THE MATERIAL???
You firstly have to let your material dry and I would advise leaving it for 24 hours. Leave it laid out where it is for as long as you can, but I appreciate if you have children running around everywhere and a busy house this may not be possible. If you have somewhere that you can hang it up that is also a good idea. If it
is a summer day maybe even hang it out to dry on the washing line.

24 hours later you need to well and truly fix the paint and to do this you iron it on the reverse. This will seal the paint and also take out any creases leaving you free to make blinds and curtains. If like me you are pretty amatuerish and useless on a sewing machine, as long as you can hem material and get it into the required size there are some really simple blind making kits which really are very easy and come with simple instructions. I purchased one of these again from the Dunhelm Mill shop and it cost me £15 for a medium size window.

blind making kit - £15.00
****Cost in Total -----> £21.30*******

So, if any of you have ever looked at the price of making blinds then they will know that this is really quite cheap. The other thing is that you have something that is personal and you made yourself. No bought in material. I have recieved so many compliments on my blinds and people always assume that they were bought. I have since seen very similar material on the market for about £7 a metre, so I did do very well as you can see.

As well as making blinds this way you could use the material you have created in curtains and this works out even cheaper, all you have to buy is the curtain tape to attach at the top. However, I guess the real expense is buying a curtain pole to hang it from. However, I actually printed some other curtains for another room and managed to get a bargain curtain pole in the sale at £5 and I just painted it to match the room.

In addition if you make extra material this way you can also make matching cushions, which again are simple to make and even I managed to do it without too many tears. For my kitchen I also had enough to make a table cloth, some napkins and a cover for my bread maker.

If you like the print so much you can also use it on the walls of the room as a border to make the curtains look even more at
home.

~~~~~~SOME VARIATIONS~~~~~~
As I said the printing with a stamp is the easiest method. However, there are also some other really interesting ways to add curtains a bit of life when you get a bit more confident.

The most interesting way is actually hand painting a design on the material. If you are the truly artistic type then you can just use it as your canvas and go for it, the will definitely be a one off then. If you are artistic, but less confident, you could first draw on your design with pencil or pen and then when satisfied you paint on with the appropriate colours. This can take some time, but can be worth it. I actually did this in my bathroom and I painted an interesting design along the bottom of the material only. In general the patterns seem to look more interesting when either along the bottom or the sides where they will be open. This involves more time and skill in working out exactly where your hems are going to be so the pattern hangs right.

Another variation is to opt for a more 3-dimensional style. This is great if you have any left over material as you can just use a template and cut out lots of shapes in a contrasting material to sew on. Or I have recently seem some ever more wacky ones in a book which had little clear pockets sewn on to them with interesting shapes and objects inside them. i think this type is nice for a childs bedroom as you can put things that would be of interest to them in it, an alternative to a mobile I guess!

Have you seen those special sprays that mean you can transfer images directly to material. You spray the image and then place on the fabric. Although I have never actually done this I think it could be a cheaper way of creating kids curtains with all the latest cartoon characters on. After all childrens toys and cartoons are always changing and as long as you had walls of one colour you just keep up dating.

~~~~~SOME EXTRA HINTS AND TIPS~~~~~~~~

><br>A great cost saving tip is to buy the tester pots of paint as these are between 50-70p depending on where you buy them from. This means that you have a variety of colours to use without having to spend a lot of money. This also means that you can have some more unusual colours and may be especially affective if you have painted your room a certain colour and so can pick out the similar shades.

I hope this was of some use anyway, not only did I get some cheap, but lovely looking blinds and curtains,but I actually got some enjoyment and a sense of achievement from it too. The only down side being that now all my friends think I enjoyed it so much I want to do theirs as well!

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