On A Mission Monday

Monday, Monday....so we meet again. Last week's mission was to "spruce" up Blake's room.  I was kind of chicken by describing it this way because I actually had one particular thing in mind....to lengthen her curtains.  Why did I not just say this?  I think because I was unsure if I would do it and like it.  Well, the mission was completed so I should have just said it in the first place!

Okay, so I bought her curtains about a year and a half ago.  I found some that claimed to be room darkening (they dim it I guess) and they happen to be just the perfect shade of pink.  The length was not good, but I wasn't too bothered by them so they stayed.  However, all too often I would think to myself...those curtains are too short.  Well, jump forward to today and I made them longer.  I guess I could have just bought new ones, but I wanted the fun of seeing if I could make the curtains we already have still work.

After googling several different sites for ideas, I found I was not alone.  Many people buy too short of curtains and "fix" them.  You can add fabric and/or ribbons to the bottom, lower your curtain rod, get those curtain clips if you need just a few inches, or even split your curtain's fabric and add fabric in the middle.  Who knew?  Well, most sites called for a sewing machine.  Some said you could use iron bonded tape or a glue gun.  The glue gun sounded easiest to me.

So off to Walmart I went last night (procrastinator) to get some fabric to add to the curtains.  The Walmart here in our town no longer sells fabric!  Waa waa.  There is not even another craft store in this town that does.  Double waa waa.  I was going to give up, but then I thought I wonder if there is anything else that might work....a blanket I could cut up, some sheets, some towels (haha), a tablecloth......that is when I found this:

Oh yeah!  On clearance to $5.00 baby!

This was my answer!  Perfect!  The top portion of the pic, the valance, was just the right length, color, and fabric that I was looking for.  Voila!  Yet also, duh! Window treatments were just the right weight and the top and bottom of this was hemmed.  So I picked up two for $10 total. Then I got a mini glue gun for $5.97 and 100 mini glue sticks also for $5.97 (of which I think I used 4).  Grand total of $21.94 and I have new curtains I love.

I was so excited to get to it that I forgot to take a "before" pic.  Found these to give you an idea of how short they were.  

Last year before Blake was all over the place

Last week when she wanted to see out her window.

So there was a gap of 7" that I wanted to cover up.  The valance is 16".  So measuring up 8" from the bottom I simply hot glued carefully the valance to the curtain.  One valance to each individual panel. I glued just along some dashes I marked at the 8"up line.  The valance was too wide on either side so I just wrapped the extra fabric back and hot glued it to the back of the curtain.  No scissors even required.  

Wrapping the extra fabric to the back to be glued on.

I was going to add some polka dotted ribbon along the bottom and top of the curtain, but then decided against it.  I liked it just how it was.  Here are some "after" pics.....

They are exactly what I imagined.
The valances made it even easier than a fabric swatch would have been.

Looking out her window again this morning.
This stool isn't always there, but there is construction going on across the street.
Free entertainment with the trucks, etc. :)

So another Monday Mission complete! They actually serve their purpose just fine and I like how they look.  Surely hot glue doesn't make for the highest quality, but they don't have to last us forever either.  Okay, so I'm feeling guilty about tiptoeing around announcing my last week's mission.  So this week I'm going to get brave.  Sigh.  I need to clean out my closet.  My bedroom closet.  It's BAD.  A real mess.  It feels like I am setting out to climb Mt. Everest.  Although if I had to do that, I'd prefer to just clean out my closet.  My husband has fallen over now at this part of my blog if he read all the way to the end.  Haha!  Wish me luck and happy Monday!:)