Raise the Roof!

Or raise the curtain height in this case.  I have been starting at the curtains in my living room for a year and a half wishing they were longer and finally go around to matching up the fabric to do so.  This week I actually have 2 curtain projects to share with you but today's is the simpler of the two and thats adding length to a curtain. 

Here is a before shot of the living room (kitchen has the same curtains at the same height)

I decided that it would look better if the curtains were at the ceiling height so off to Joann's I went in search of a fabric match.  It was pretty hard to find an exact match but the color match was very very close.  The store associate actually made a great suggestion to add ribbon to the seam to try and make it look pretty seamless so I decided to go with that idea.  As a side note...none of this requires a sewing machine.  Arguably it would have been better if I had sewn it, but since I cant sew a straight line to save my life I figured hem tape would work better.  Below is after the curtain rods were taken down, and you can see what a big difference even sheers make to a window.  It looks so boring and bland, but with the curtains it brings more life into the home.  Dont get me wrong its cool if you dont want curtains, I just happen to prefer having them.

Here is what i started with...

 Thats the bottom of the curtain and the fabric that I used to make it longer.  First I measured with width of the original and cut the new fabric plus 1 inch on either side to match.  The 1 inch on either side is to make the hem so that the unfinished edges dont show.

 Here you can see the pinning of the hem.  What I do is first pin the hem, then iron over it so the hem stays down then I insert the hem tape between the fabric and the edge.  Make sure you read the instructions on the hem tape so you know how long to leave the heat on for.

 Here is a closer shot of the edges hemmed down.  Not the best shot but you get the idea.  I did the 1 inch hem on 3 edges to make sure there were not going to be any unfinished edges showing.

 Above is a better picture of all 3 edges hemmed and ready for the next step

 To attach the extra length put the original curtain face down and the new addition face up so they are back to back.  The white line you see at the bottom of the brown is the hem tape before I put it in between the 2 fabrics.  Once you have both fabrics as close to perfectly lined up as you can, put the hem tape between the 2 pieces of fabric and iron away.

 Once them hem tape has had about 1 minute to cool flip the extra length piece down and then iron at the seam to help it lay flat.  As an extra step I also flipped the curtain over and put a piece of them tape at the seam as well.  Since both fabrics were pretty heavy it helped to have the extra bonding to keep it from flopping around.  If you have a lighter fabric this wont be necessary.

Now for the decoration.  I have a hard time with straight lines so ribbon really is my best friend and helps me hide a host of problems.  Same is the case here, so I put hem tape on the curtain where I wanted the ribbon to go (aka cover up a mess haha), put the ribbon on top of that and ironed it all together.  Below you see the sheers have also magically grown in length as well...well I spent another 2 hours taking a seam ripper to them to make them longer.  These babies had like a 6 inch hem on them which was great because that meant I didnt have to add any length to them I just had to take the seam out.  Major score on that one.

All in all I had 4 curtains to do and it took about 3 hours to do all 4...and thats including distractions from the dog and the TV shows I was watching...oh and another 2 for the sheers.  Truth be told I am actually going to move these curtains to the kitchen with their sisters because i want to make a sheer valance for in here...but seeing as I used all my fabric allowance in here and the bedroom that will have to wait a few more weeks.  Oh and cost on this, the fabric was $13.50 for 3 yards, $5 for 2 spools of ribbon and $3 for 2 rolls of hem tape.  Total for this project of 4 curtains is $21.50.  Not bad considering you cant really buy a 100" length curtain for that price!

My back is killing me from all the sitting on the floor but I think its worth it, makes the room look taller and it was pretty cheap to do as well which always makes me happy.  Do you have curtains you like but would love to make longer?  Whats holding you back?!

Project Housewife Out!

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Tray Time

First I want to tell yall that I am SO EXCITED for my puppy Oreo to be the Daily Fluffy today over at Pretty Fluffy.  A BIG shout out to Serena for having such an amazing pet blog.  You can check here out here.  Make sure to stop by and check out her awesome-ness!

On to today's project!  This is a project I did before I started blogging so I dont have any step by step pictures, but I do have a tutorial I can link up for you.  I saw this on Pinterest when I first got addicted many months ago.  Turns out the project was a Martha Stewart project and you can find the link here.  I had leftover fabric from when I made curtains (you can see that post here) and I had a ton of black felt left over from when I made my pin display cases (you can see that post here).  I had spray adhesive from when I painted a room with a stencil (no post of that it has since been painted over and such a shame too it was awesome) so all I needed was the vinyl and the cookie sheet.

I am going to pass some wisdom on to you right now...DO NOT get a tray that has a non-stick surface.  I didnt even think of that when I was buying a tray I was just thinking of price.  Let me tell you it made it almost impossible to get the fabric to stay, so be careful with your choice.  Of course if you have an old ratty tray that you just want to cover thats cool too, free is free right!  I also needed to get the vinyl but I had NO CLUE where to get that from so I went to JoAnn's and bought 1 yard of the clear plastic material, like the stuff you put over tables...not a good description I know but it came on one of the big rolls as was $4/yard.  Not exactly true to the Martha version but I had to improvise people!

The below picture is a shot of the front of the sheet.  I personally think covering the whole thing in the clear plastic was a better idea in case you spill something you wont mess up the fabric because its covered all around.  

 To get this look make sure you cut out enough fabric to tuck under at the bottom.  Try and cut straight lines to make for a better fold.  Spray the tray and place the fabric on top then press down, smoothing out all the edges, making sure there are no bumps.  Let that dry for about 30 minutes then move on to the vinyl.  This was a little harder and we ended up hot gluing the vinyl to the fabric, but if you have fabric glue that will probably work too.  Make sure the vinyl is the same size as your fabric so you have complete coverage.  Once you get that all glued down you can flip the tray over and do the bottom.

This shot is of the bottom.  Since you cant see the bottom ever I dont feel bad that it looks a hot mess...trust me in person this doenst look pretty.

Try and glue all the extra fabric to the bottom of the tray before applying the felt.  Use whatever glue you want to do this since you wont be able to see it.  The black felt also covers a host of imperfections, use that to your advantage.  Our corners were a mess so the felt comes up a little to cover that.  Once you have that glued down, flip the tray back over and you are done!  Easy right!  Total cost for mine was $10, thats $5 for the tray and $5 for the vinyl.  Much better than the awful placemat I had there to begin with (I photoshopped this picture so you cant see but there is a huge wood mess in the middle of the table from where my nail polish spill removed the top layer from the table, obviously its not real wood lol)

So there you have it, a project that takes less than an hour and bring color and life to your space.

Project Housewife Out!

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