Here is my first DIY! It is very easy and maybe should be a re-purposing project or a make from scratch project? Anyway it’s very easy and a great way of re-looking at something you might already have.
I made this silk quilt quite a few moons ago and in a very different time of my life. It has lived in the bottom of cupboards for a few years now as the memories associated with it made even looking at it, let alone use it were really too painful. Well this project is part of my emotional healing and it is so beautiful that it belongs in the light to remind me of the happy times then and more importantly the happy times NOW!
Every time the sun shines I have a glowing, jewel coloured curtain that brings a smile to my face. It is a very simple pattern and now a very graphic, colourful piece of textile art for me to enjoy every day. And at night when the curtain is drawn across the windows the colours are subdued but still glorious and it makes a dramatic backdrop in my dining room. Double the enjoyment!
I suppose you could just hang a beautiful quilt at your window for a curtain, but what makes this a little different is that when you take the wadding and the back off and hang the pieced front only when the sun shines through you get a secondary layer of pattern in that you can see the seams. It adds a real graphic quality to the quilt and is something, that after putting in all that time of cutting and stitching to make the quilt, you cannot usually see.
It was very easy to do. The quilt was tied not stitched so this is something to keep in mind if you want to do something similar. At quilt shows or online you can sometimes pick up quilt tops (without wadding and backing) and these would be perfect. So all I had to do was to cut away the ties that held the quilt ‘sandwich’ together, I then cut the binding off as I wasn’t worried about a finished edge and you can re hem if desired. The quilt had a hanging pocket on it so I used this to sew back onto the quilt top to create the pocket for my curtain rail. Easy!
Being made of silk the colours just glow when the sun shines through it and is really quite beautiful. I am glad I pulled it out of the bottom of the cupboard.
Other old textiles can be used for beautiful curtains and I have seen tablecloths and beautiful tea towels re-used or reinterpreted for curtains on pinterest. Our imagination is all we need!
x Fi
