I found a really beautiful tea cloth at the thrift store for under $6.00. I tried it on several tables, and for a while it hung as a sort of valance over my window. Then one day I held it up against the window and realized it was the exact same size as the window. So I took some muslin, a tension rod, and a wooden dowel(all things I had in my sewing room) and transformed it into a shade.
Here are the materials I started with
Here's what I ended up with
I have since changed the side panels to a faux silk(I found some real silk ones for $50, but $15 was a little more palatable, and they look really nice) and added a valance I made from an extra panel. So instead of spending $100 on 2 silk panels, I spent $45 and got 2 panels, a valance, and some extra fabric I will probably use for toss pillows. I'll try to get a better picture soon. But you get the general idea of the light coming through the tablecloth. The really light spots are all openwork with needle weaving. I love using linens in unusual ways.
1 comment:
So I have this new old house and a million weird sized windows that I can't seem to properly cover with beauty.
I could leave them covered with ugly, but I wouldn't be able to stay in the room without being irritated and distracted. So I am going room by room and am hoping that my finances will catch up with my decorating desires (they never do).
I have been thinking about your shade here since I moved in and it has inspired me on several counts. I just spent a very long time searching your blog for this post,and I decided that after all the effort I should comment.
So I have a comment: NEATO
I like your taste and creativity so very much. And while I only comment occasionally because my comments can't seem to contain themselves to anything less than a short novel, I think about what you guys post a lot, to the effect that I am always even gladder to know you when I am done reading.
And as for the decorating, I was particularly reminded of your idea here yesterday because I was busy ripping a red and blue sheet off of two cornice boards that the owner of my home left. They were unbelievably clashy with my dining room decor, and the cornice boards made me laugh a lot at their less than professional make-up once I got down to them.
We have decided that this lady has watched a few too many HGTV shows for her own good.
All that aside, I am in process of covering the cornice board with some very funny materials. My old boss and good friend who appreciates my taste and needs came to visit when we moved in and laughed at how much the clashing colours were bothering me.
She came back a few weeks later with a bag of goods she had stolen from her mother's basement. She knows we are poor right now and wanted to help.
She had seen an old tea cart in my kitchen that the woman had left (very rickety with a most appalling rust problem on the metal top). The woman told me that she had just covered the top with a tea cloth. She had shored up the sides of the cart with bead board left over from their bathroom remodel.
I did not have a spare tea cloth, but in Kmart one day (our city sadly has no Target), I found for a buck a vinyl place mat in a white lace design very similar to your window there. It is beautiful, easily cleaned, and cost a buck. I can live without the antique authenticity.
I don't know if that was the inspiration, or her just searching her mom's basement stash and grabbing what she could, but my friend came back with a vinyl white lace table cloth the exact length (to the centimeter!) of my cornice boards and exactly wide enough to cut in half for use on both of them.
She also provided some white hospital sheets from her sister the nurse to use for white backing so that the scary cornice boards whould not show through the lace. I had to avoid some military stencil looking words with the name of the hospital imprinted on the edges, but otherwise, it was perfect.
The benefits of the vinyl are without number. First and foremost, it was FREE (my favourite price), and then it is white (my favourite colour), not to mention easily cleaned (a must with my allergies- material that is stapled to the window is not so easily thrown into the wash, you know).
I have decided I am going to write a book on a 1000 uses for a vinyl lace tablecloth/ place mate. I am also planning on making a curtain for the very annoying window in our shower. We have covered it with that frosting contact paper, but you can still see in at night if we have the lights on, so showers must be taken in the dark or in the morning.
I am a morning shower girl, so it has not bothered me too much, but a curtain is in order nonetheless, and a vinyl one would make sense for the wetness.
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