Bad News: My ultra fabulous thrift store skirt did not fit. I could get it on and button it up, but my hips bust out from under the pleated waistband and gave me the look of a rainbow striped Elizabethan bar wench.
Hot.
Good News: The skirt only cost a $1.50, so I didn’t mind experimenting. I cut a slit up the side, poked a couple holes in the waistband and slipped through a tension rod. TaDa it’s a cafe curtain.
I’m too lazy to hem today, so I just used my sharpest scissors to get a clean edge. As much as I like to sew, I like no-sew projects much more. This took a whopping three minutes. I feel so efficient.
UpdateKatpawz mentioned a great idea in the comment section: “To cut down on the ravels – before cutting the slits for the curtain rod – place a piece of transparent packing tape over your future cut site and then cut through the tape and the fabric.” Thanks Katpawz, wish I had thought of that!
Best part is now I can see my nifty skirt/curtain all the time. It won’t be stuck in the back of a closet 363 days of the year. And, if I ever lose 20 pounds and want to wear it as a skirt, I can just yank out the tension rod, slip the side and be ready to go. Now I’m wondering how many pleated 80’s skirts are floating around the thrift store just begging to be made into cafe curtains?
BrettBuen
Perfect idea nutbirds! You can also use black lace leggings for that, especially when it has those “runs” already and it can’t be worn. At least it can still be put to good use.
PeachesFreund
Haha, I remember that old Carol Burnett skit!
Tracy Lynn Bower
good lord, your mind is just FABULOUS!!!!
tracylee
Literally did a fistpump in my office at reading this.
remember that scene in Merry Christmas Charlie Brown where Lucy is rattling off Chuck’s phobias? “Maybe you have pantophobia…”
so Charlie says “What’s pantophobia?” Lucy tells him “The fear of everything.” and then Charlie yells “THAT’S IT!!” and she backwards somersaults into the air…
this is what I thought of reading this. It’s like you’ve suddenly diagnosed everything wrong with my windows and I can yell “THAT’S IT!” and fix it.
Colleen
Such a creative idea, I’d have never thought of that!
Heidi
I did this in my livingroom with a DownEast skirt and it was my favorite curtain ever! Mostly because it’s the only completely finished curtain I own LOL…..Thanks for the uplift!
Shannon Victoria Holmes
I rather like it as a window treatment. Very inventive, Peaches.
nutbirds
Very nice, very nice. And when you are tired of that, you can make a pillow for your orange couch. Or you can just wrap and pin a pillow maybe even with those clips that close potato chip bags. Or sew it with dental floss. Don’t you just love color! Ann
Puppyloveprincess
this is good stuff.
April
Great idea!!!!!
Alittlejunkinmytrunk
That is sooo Carol Burnett of you! Gone with the Window Curtains! I love it!
Stella Dora von Swineburg
Love it!!
Alicia Smith-Turley
That is amazing! Great job!!!
Ellicia
If there is a Serendipity Award, you win this week’s for the curtain.
( Serendipity: :the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for; also: an instance of this .)
Katzpawz
If I remember correctly, you told us that the skirt is made of silk; so it might tend to be a bit “ravvely” (ok I made that word up!) To cut down on the ravels – before cutting the slits for the curtain rod – place a piece of transparent packing tape over your future cut site and then cut through the tape and the fabric.
The curtain looks wonderful in your window! Huzzahs to you!!
PeachesFreund
Oh man, is that a great tip!
PeachesFreund
Fistpump!
Julie
This was a brilliant idea! I love this as a curtain…and now you know I must be on the look out! Thanks so much for showing this idea!!!
Frostedbakerybylena
I LOVE the color of your walls!! What’s the name of it?? And who makes it??? thanks : )
Marie Donaldson
Love it! Thank you Auntie!!!
Jordan Marie Schilleci
gosh.. too smart! love love!!
<3xojo
TKOwens
I hope you don’t mind that I pinned this on Pinterest (and raved about you in the comment section). I found you, thanks to the sanctimonious Hobby Lobby brouhaha, and I am very glad I did. I can’t wait to start rummaging in my closets–through my own butter-stained and tagged bar wench collection.