Finally Finished: Living Room Curtains

I have eventually hung the last or our livingroom curtains!

It took us ages to pick a fabric we both liked and even longer to decide that we would actually go for that bold a pattern across the whole wall.

Our living room has 3 small windows across the front wall. For a while we lived with just wooden blinds to give us some privacy from the street, but we soon realised that lined curtains would give us much needed insulation from the cold (essential in an old Scottish cottage). Lined curtains would also cut down on the noise and light from the road, so it was decided that full-length lined curtains were the way to go.

So after god-only-knows-how-many conversations, numerous trips to fabric stores and pontificating over the merits of dark fabric v light fabric (Just so you know: Dark would cut out light, look cosier, but be very dull; light would be brighter, but be difficult to match to the white walls and hard to keep clean) well we eventually threw caution to the wind and purchased 15 metres of Prestigious: Maple Cinnamon 

I had already made curtains from the lining fabric, with tabs (because when we couldn't decide on fabric and we needed something up quickly) So to turn them into full-blown lined curtains I just needed to sew the patterned fabric panel on top.

I didn't sew them with red thread, but this is a nice picture of the fabric on my singer.

I do all my sewing on my treadle and so there I sat, clickity clacking away. I was in labour at the time - yup like actually treadling through contractions, it helped me focus away from the pain and as I finished the 4th curtain, it dawned on me that my heavily pregnant brain had done the calculations wrong and I had bought 1.5m less than we needed... then I realised I was in need of a quick visit to the hospital to, y'know, give birth.  Meanwhile John ordered the remaining fabric - plus 3.5m more than we needed - I think this was his cautious-baby-daddy brain in action. I'm not saying he ordered it while I was giving birth or anything but it was certainly within a 48 hour window.

Anywhooo... for some reason, it took me quite a while to get back round to finishing that last pair of curtains, which I eventually did last month. It wasn't until they were hung up that I realised how 'mid-century modern' the pattern is.

With it being quite a long room they bring it all together, they cheer up the room and definitely keep the cold out at night.

The top is a simple hidden tab top and they are lined with cheap fabric from IKEA - I might have gone for blackout fabric but it is expensive and blocking out the light isn't essential in a living room.

The curtains are hemmed 2.5 inches longer than floor length, for cosiness (this is either called 'trouser length' or 'breaking' according to the guides)

And I've still got a couple of metres left over to make cushion covers.