Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Laundry Room Part 2: DIY Shower Curtain and Valance


A Happy Tuesday to YOU!!!  First and foremost:  I found my USB thingy!!!  Funny story...You know the little pot that we keep our phones and such in?  No?  Well:

I'm not going to lie...sometimes it acquires a few items that aren't supposed to be in there.  Such as:  coupons, USB thingies, a pen...in this case, a collegiate pin was in there.  You know those round pins that people wear to support whatever they're supporting?  Back in the day, the only pins I had were New Kids on the Block (Joey forever) and Book It.  Well, Peanutty had one that had landed in this pot.  My USB thingy just so happens to be magnetic...you know where I'm going with this.  I'd looked in that pot about 53 times (because things like that appear out of thin air).  I decided it was time to clean it out and when I picked up the pin, it seemed a little heavier than usual.  BOOM!  There was my USB giving me the evil eye as if to say "you're an idiot".  So, I'm happy to report the lost has been found...for now.

Moving on...remember the laundry room I showed you a few weeks back?

I'm going to show you how I made the shower curtain and valance out of about $20 worth of fabric purchased at Hobby Lobby.  Because of the smaller shower size (it's just a simple stand in shower with no tub), I wasn't sure if I was going to find a shower curtain that size.  AND a matching/coordinating valance.  So, I opted to make my own.  After I figured out the colors I wanted to go with, I set out to find the fabric.  I really wanted a chevron print, but I was coming up short.  I found this fabric on sale at Hobby Lobby and rolled with it.  Here are the steps I took to make my laundry room duds:

First thing I did was cut the plastic curtain liner to fit the actual size of my shower.  I made sure the holes on the top were going to be centered on the curtain rod and even on each side.
I spread out all the fabric onto the floor and laid the plastic curtain over the top.  Yes, I could have measured, but I didn't want to do that this time.  I wanted to see how much extra fabric I wanted on each side of the curtain.  I did measure after I did this step and cut.  Again, I allowed extra for seam allowance.  And I'll be the first to admit that I do not cut straight.  I think cutting fabric straight is one of the most difficult things to accomplish.

It was as simple as sewing the edges to give it a nice finished look.  I then sewed button holes to match the holes in the plastic liner.  For the record, I had no idea how to do button holes on my machine...my sweet-as-all-get-out Hubby read the instructions, and then showed me how to do it.  What would I do without him!?!?!  Jealous?  Yeah, you should be. Hehe! 
Put it all together and there you have it!  It was simple and really quite fun!!!

Valance:




Once I figured out how long and wide I wanted my valance, I cut it and made enough for seam allowance on every side.  I had leftover curtain liner from a project years ago, so I used that as well.  Cut it down to the same size of the patterned fabric.  I put the right sides of it together and sewed all along the perimeter and left the top open.  Turned it right side out and set it aside.  I wanted to do a tabbed curtain.  So the steps above show what I did.  I cut the little strips.  Spaced them out on the valance to see how many I wanted.  Ironed around the folded edges, then sewed them.  Gave them a clean and simple look.



Remember that open top edge of the valance?  I tucked the fabric under, and ironed it to give it a crisp edge.  I then took the tabs, spaced them, and pinned them to where I wanted them.  I then sewed up that top edge with the tabs in place.  They are just hanging out of the top for now, but we will connect them to the back side of the valance to make them actual tabs.
You would pin them to the back side of the valance and then sew across to keep them in place.  Here's an up close pic of what they look like all done:


This is what the back side looks like and the bottom picture shows what the front looks like.  I opted to just sew the tabs, but you could put a full seam from one side to the other. 
And again, the final product.  It was super easy and only took me an afternoon to finish them.  Wahoo!!! 


Side Note: It's too early for me to have an iced chai, but it is in my near future.
Side Note 2:  I ate a toastada for breakfast.  It was delicious!
Side Note 3:  I'm not proof reading this.  Enjoy my mistakes!!!

And that's that.  Hope you all have a great week!!!  Until next time...









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