It's curtains for you!

I needed some curtains for my beautiful kitchen windows.  They look out on the garden and let in lots of light.  Early in the morning they let in a little TOO MUCH light, blinding anyone unlucky enough to sit on the west side of the table for breakfast.  But I don't have tons of money to go out and buy curtains.  Besides, I'm not sure what color I will paint the kitchen, so I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on something I might have to replace after I paint.  Then I thought about sheets.

I have lots of queen-sized sheets.  I had just bought two bed-in-a-bag sets, but I bought them purely for the comforters and bed skirts.  We have nice 800 thread count sheets and while the new Walmart sheets matched, they couldn't stand up to the 800s.  So they became beautiful curtains instead!

Annalee really wanted to help, so I let her push the foot pedal when I said so.  With curtains, you are sewing forever in a straight line, so it wasn't too much of a risk.  She looks like my little sweat-shop kid down there, haha!

To make things as simple as possible for me, I tried to use all the existing seams I could.  I cut the sheet in half width-wise and hemmed the bottom of the first curtain.  Then I used a seam ripper to open up the sides of the thick band at the top of the sheet: perfect for putting a curtain rod through!  Then I sewed the top of the other curtain to match.  (The bottom was already hemmed.)  Here is a handy tip I learned about hemming: if you don't want to iron (WHO DOES?) you can sew a straight stitch 1/4 inch from the bottom (easy to do along the edge of the presser foot).  Then fold it over so the fold is on the seam, and fold it again so the rough edge is inside.  Sew it down.  Easy-peasy!  The seam gives you something straight to work from so you don't have to keep measuring the whole time to make sure it is all the same width.  Also, the seam somehow makes it easier to fold under so it's possible to do it without the iron. 

The curtains are just thin enough that they still let in lots of light for my kitchen, but they cut off the hard glare from the early morning sun.  I love my free curtains!