Project: Curtain

We live in a one bedroom condo where the bedroom doesn't have windows. To let in some natural light, the bedroom has sliding frosted glass doors. It's a great idea - except when you have a baby. Baby sleeps at 7:30pm. After that, we have really low lighting in our living/dining area. So it's always a romantic low-lit dinner for me and my husband. Plus, we can't watch TV.

I got this great idea of putting up some sort of panel curtains to block the light from the living room. I was all ready to go buy my materials from IKEA, but reality set in -- no one in our house is handy. We stay away from anything that involves drilling or putting permanent things in our walls. After some research, I decided to just use basic fabric and VELCRO!

I went to Walmart, got cheap fabric and bought some uber cool velcro, the hook side is Sticky Back and the loop side is Fabric Fusion (iron on fabric). Originally, I planned to get velcro with one side sticky back and other side sew-on but I saw that they sell velcro in the particular combination suitable for my needs. As I'm not really a sewing person, the less sewing I need to do, the better.

Two weeks after that (which was today), I finally got the energy to do the sewing of the actual curtain using my mother-in-law's sewing machine. No one knows how to use it really, but I figured, as an engineering graduate (yes I am) and a mom, I can probably figure it out. A lot of messy stitches later, I was done with one panel (I had to sew my original fabric to black fabric to make it more opaque plus I had to sew the sides). I decided I was done for the day.

When we got home, I installed the curtain (with velcro and all). It did remarkably reduce the light coming in the bedroom even with just one panel. But we'll forego the TV for now, I have to sew and install the other panel first. I dare not post pictures because it looks so ugly, hubby and I laughed for a long time after we saw it set up. Anyway, the beauty of velcro is, when we have guests, we can easily take it out =D

So there you go, that's my attempt at sewing and DIY-ing.