Just a window. White. Blinds. Nice view of garage siding. Not very inspired.
The first thing I did was remove the blinds. They just weren't necessary. You'd have to really work if you wanted to see into the bathroom from the outside. Regulating the light wasn't a problem either since the window gets lots of shade from the trees in the backyard. However, once the blinds were removed, all I could see when I looked out the window was the garage siding. Yuck. I hate crappy views...even if I'm only looking out the bathroom window. So I needed to come up with an idea for a snazzy window treatment that met my stringent criteria:
1. It had to be sheer enough to let sunlight in but not so sheer that you could still see the garage siding.
2. It had to be interesting.
3. It had to be cheap. I am the Queen of Cheap.
The cheap part of me led me to my vast storehouse of Stuff I've Been Saving Until I Need It Someday.
I found strips of sheer fabric I'd used as table runners for my daughter's wedding.
I found 'silk' leaves I'd picked up once upon a time at the Dollar Store.
I found my glue gun.
I found my inspiration.
First, I sewed the fabric strips together. Then I cut them and sewed them again until I had a sheer fabric quilt top looking thing sized to fit the dimensions of my window.
I used brown thread and it was my intention that the seam allowances be part of the 'texture' of the window treatment. I didn't finish the seams and I didn't turn over the side edges. I did make a casing on both the top and bottom of the curtain. I tried to make the seams very tidy. My mother would be proud.
Next, I took my Dollar Store leaves and detached the 'leaf' from the plastic stem. Very easy to do. Just pick and pull.
You end up with some sad looking 'stems'. Throw those bad boys away, then go get your iron and gently press the 'leaves'.
Next, in a flash of foresight, I realized I needed to place something underneath my fabric so I wouldn't accidentally glue leaves to my carpet. I located the cutting board I use for sewing projects. It was behind Tom's rolling tool box in the corner of the garage. (Isn't that where you keep your cutting board?) With the wrong side of the curtain facing up, I tossed my 'leaves' on the fabric, as though they'd just been blown in by the wind. I pretty much left them where they landed and glued them in place using just a dot of glue. When the glue was set, I used embroidery floss to stitch on the 'stems'.
Next, I flipped the curtain over and glued about a third as many leaves on the front side. They got stems, too.
I remembered coming across a couple of downed poplar branches in the yard and decided that they would make a good curtain rod. I stripped off the dead leaves, made a couple of snips and VIOLA!.. a curtain rod and a weight for the bottom of the curtain. They slipped easily through the casings I'd made on the top and bottom.
Here's the finished product. See the sun coming in? You have to see this in person to get the full 3-D, almost stained glass effect. Very cool. Here are some more pics...
Check out the 'shimmer'. Gives me goosebumps.
See the shadow cast by the leaves? Almost looks like the real deal...
Can't you just hear the autumn wind rustling the leaves in the trees? I can.
Ta-dah!
I'm a huge fan of leaves. I like leaves as much as I like rocks, but just in case leaves aren't your thing, you could easily substitute 'silk' flower petals for the leaves. Heck, you could substitute buttons or doilies or whatever 'winds your watch'.
The important thing is that you end up with something that makes you happy whenever you look at it.
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