ORGANIZING
Tips for Tuesday
Refinishing my stairway means two things:
1. Someday I'll have some "after" pictures to share with you - hopefully soon.
2. I need to clean my ENTIRE house, top to bottom!
As careful as we were, we still ended up with sawdust EVERYWHERE - upstairs, downstairs, stuck on the walls, behind closed doors ... So, I'm going to be stuck in the "during" stage of this project until I get this sawdust cleaned up.
This weekend I washed my curtains - which were also full of dust - and since I had to put them back up anyway, I thought I'd show you how to have a window treatment with a minimal investment in hardware. All this takes is a couple cup hooks and a few rubber pony-tail holders, so your investment would probably be less than a dollar if you don't happen to have these things around the house already.
Here's the finished product. I started with a sheer curtain panel that is 8 yards (24 feet) long and 5 feet wide. Using a measuring tape, I determined how long I wanted the left side to be and how far down the center piece should drape. (The right side is puddled on the floor.)
I decided the length on the left should be 61 inches, so measured along the length of the panel (which I folded in half) and marked that spot with a pin on both the top and bottom edges. (A couple paper clips can also be used, but they tend to get caught as they're removed.) Go down 12 inches and pin again.
The distance between my two cup hooks along the drape line was 41 inches so I measured that far and placed another set of pins followed by a fourth pair of pins another 12 inches down. So now I have my panel folded lengthwise with a pin in both the top and bottom edge 61 inches from the end (my left length), twelve inches from that, again 41 inches down (my swag length) and another 12 inches from that.
Fold the panel (like you'd fold a fan out of paper) between the first and last set of pins using about a 5 inch fold. This was too long to do all together so I started at the 61 inch mark and went to the half-way point, then folded again from the half-way point to the final set of pins.
Keeping the fan fold in place, fold the panel between the pins that are 12 inches apart, giving you a 6 inch loop. Place a rubber hair tie tightly around the fabric and carefully remove the pins. Repeat this for the other 12 inch section. (You may want to secure the fan fold with pins and make sure the distance is where you want it before putting in the second hair tie.) Rubber bands work, but the sun rots them more quickly than it does the hair ties.
Place one hand in the loop you've created (the hair tie is below my hand in the photo) then place the other hand in from the other direction. Pull the fabric off one hand and onto the other to unfold it and "poof" it out. Repeat with the other loop.
Carefully place each rubber band over a cup hook, draping the fabric between the two hooks. Adjust the "poofs" and the folds until you're satisfied with the finished product. If the distances aren't quite right, just take out one or both of the hair ties and repeat the process, adjusting as necessary.
Ta da!
