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Unpacking Break: custom green curtains

When we started planning the layout of the tower, we took into account the fact that Ty is the outdoor person, and at times, I could be confused with a cave-dweller. This meant that Ty got the windowed room for his office, and I got the less windowed room for my studio.

Ty’s first order of business after unpacking and doing all the weird mailing and set-up stuff you have to do for a move, was to get back to writing. He got up early one morning, facing the morning sun, and found he could not write in the blinding southern glare. I stopped unpacking and started working on a solution.

We went to Lowe’s and bought 3 screw-to-fit shower curtain rods. The metal casings around his windows, and cement enclosure everywhere else really prevented us from using any sort of traditional curtain rod. At the fabric store, we looked for thick, low priced fabric that wouldn’t wrinkle when the curtain was open. We settled on a green polyester after a sun test at the front of the store.

Then came the construction! I looked at some patterns on the internet for tab curtains. Most of them suggest 10-inch tabs! That seemed excessive to me, but maybe we just had a smaller rod. I cut the fabric to fit the length windows plus 8 inches. I whip-stitched the selvedge end over, and then started creating the 8 inch tabs. The fabric width was 63 inches, 62 after whip-stitching. Each curtain had 15 tabs spaced about 1 tab per 4 inches, and then one on the end.


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After the tabs were made, I hung up the curtains and just pinned them to fit. After hemming the ends, they were finished. Retrospective: cutting and sewing the individual tabs took the largest amount of time. Next time I may have to experiment with huge grommets instead. However, after watching the Twin Peaks Gold Edition box set, Tyrone is probably very happy to have silent drapery runners, and not having to resort to (SPOILER) cotton balls and oil.Ty says he really likes these curtains, and that they go with his human aquarium theme.

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