Drape Drama: Craft Room Edition

I've been spending a lot of quality time with my Singer the past few days, working on window treatments for my craft room & I'm pleased to announce that they're finally up & living up to all my expectations. After months & months of waiting for just the right inspiration, I finally decided to go with a bold black & white stripe. I may or may not have been subconsciously inspired by the decor of Olivia the pig as Lola & I are huge fans of her show.

And, I've also seen several bloggers going with this look recently & they've all come up with their different methods of getting it done, providing me with lots of great inspiration.

In the end, I came up with my own method & if you're thinking of going bold with stripes, here's how I did it.

I started out with these pre-mades straight from Target.com in the 95" length in both black & white. These were a super deal at only $19.99 per pair--much cheaper & easier than starting from scratch.

Then, I did some math. On paper. With a good old pencil & calculator. This is the most difficult part. Many of my sewing projects start out just like this. You simply sketch out your idea, starting with the total length of drape you want, figuring out how many stripes you need & how long you want each to be until you have found the right formula that works for you. It's very important to get this right so you know exactly how many panels to buy & how the pieces will fit together to get the proper length.

My plan was to cut the black panels up in pieces & sew the pieces on top of the white panel, so that the back of the curtain would remain basically white. (I didn't want to have to line them afterward.) But, I needed extra length for my panels in order for them to go from floor to ceiling, like I wanted.

So, I used only the top stripe on each panel as a lengthener, cutting the white panel & sewing it in.

For each of the other stripes, I cut them to size & pressed the raw edges over 1/2 inch on top & bottom, then pinned them in place carefully on the white panel.

Lucky for me, I turned on the TV to find Kate the Centsational Girl on The Nate Berkus Show there to keep me company thru ALL THAT IRONING. Thanks, Kate!

After the stripes were pressed & pinned, I sewed them on carefully, with a small stitch, close to the edge.

Yes, this does require a lot of time & patience with the iron & measuring tape to get each stripe perfectly placed. (Did I say perfectly? hee hee). Actually, just like most of my projects, this one is full of imperfections. And adjustments did have to be made, but the good news is, if someone stares at these curtains too carefully, they'll get dizzy & never even notice the little imperfections.

So, there you have the short version of how these came about.

Here's a little before shot of the room:

And here's the after:

Now this space has more drama than a Jr. High cafeteria & I'm spreading it around to a few of these sites! Check them out!