And more sewing . . .

I’ve had my trusty old Kenmore out and rigged up and ready to go for some sewing work sessions this past weekend.  Let’s see what I battled out . . .

Cue scary music for “before” image of kitchen — specifically the back door.

Can’t you just picture ax murderers lurking in the dark, waiting to kick in the door and cut you into pieces as you do dishes?  No?  Me neither, really — there’s a sun porch outside the back door so the ax murderers can’t get too close.  But we were getting a little “too close” to the neighbors who could see right into our kitchen (and vice versa – but actually from our kitchen door we can see into their bathroom . . . .)

So (sew!) cafe curtains were born!

I found a nice polka dot at Hobby Lobby and bought 1-1/2 yards.  It was a little light so I also bought a light white cotton to use as an interlayer.  Since, in theory, we will use the sun porch (right now it is a storage room for fun things like firewood and weed wackers and recycling bins), I wanted both sides to be nice.  I doubled up the polka dots and added in the interlayer and sewed a pillow case (for all intents and purposes).  Then I folded up and ironed both of the open ends of the “pillow case” (really the bottom of the curtain here) and finished it off with a heavy zig-zag/interlock stitch in white. 

I wish they were a little fuller and had a little more movement, but they’ll do for now.  For about $10 in fabric and a curtain rod and clips I already had lurking in my Hoarder’s-style basement, it’s a nice privacy solution. 

As you can see from the photos, the kitchen is about to be “smurfed” into the same blue as the music room.  I struggled along for a while, thinking I would keep it white one day, then convincing myself to go for blue on others.  Finally I couldn’t handle the indecision any more and emailed some of my college classmate/fellow designers for advice.  They steered me right and we’re going for broke with blue.  (Thanks Erin and Kristin!)  Even as a design professional myself, there are some decisions I will just over-think and over-think until nothing happens. 

So I’m excited to kick off the next phase of kitchen reno – painting, painting and painting!  First the walls, next the cabinets and finally the doors and trim.   The cafe curtains may have to get moved out of the kitchen temporarily to avoid being splattered in blue, but we’re enjoying them for now!