updating the living room {the ORC editions}: week 3

This is week three of the One Room Challenge: the living room edition, pretty much the half way point. And we have progress!

Last week there was new paint, this week, there are curtains!
Well they are almost finished, I still need to hem them but what a difference it makes in the room:

Do not pay attention to the pins, and they are still a little too long, because of their weight, they stretched a little!
The main fabric is from Fabric.com, a linen/cotton mix in indigo, with a cool retro vibe.
And now I remember why, 7 years ago, when we moved into this house I decided to not make curtains and instead use dropcloths, this was so much work, and so much fabric:
12 yards of prints, 3 yards of blue, 12 yards of lining fabric! 4 panels for 2 windows....many hours of sewing and ironing!
And I changed my mind halfway through the project, after making 1 full panel....so a fair amount of unstitching.

The addition of the blue made them perfect! And a little wider, as my windows are extra wide (8 feet wide) I cannot make double width curtains as the windows take the all space, there is basically no walls around them, no space for extra fabric storage.

I made them quite simply, just like in the kitchen, pillowcase style: I cut a 3 yard panel from my linen print,  I cut a 6.5 inch wide band (3 yard long)  out of the blue fabric, and stitched them together. Then I ironed that seam toward the blue, and topstitched it. 

Then I cut a 3 yard panel out of the lining fabric,

and stitched both sides to my previous panel.

I ironed everything, making sure there is a little bit of print fabric on the back side,

and keeping some blue fabric on the other side of the backside,

so there is no way to see the lining on the front.

Finally the lining and print/blue fabric are stitched at the top, wrong side together.

Everything is turned right side out, and once again ironed.

And it could be done right there if you want to use the pinching clip,

but I want it a little more refined and did not want to see the crocodile clip.

So I used a special band: Dritz clip ring tape,

that I sewed in the back, and attached the clip to it.

It also had some extra stability to the top of the curtains as they are quite heavy.
For the 2 other windows in this large L shaped room, I purchased some cotton velvet curtains from IKEA: Merete in beige, the color is a good match to the linen.

Lou says Hi!
Now I am debating adding a piece of blue to them, not sure. They look good with the fireplace.

That window is also smaller, so these curtains are wide enough, but they would be to small on the other windows.
Now I would love to do something to the fireplace, like installing a mantel, but it is going to have to wait for a while, as I am planning on making over an armoire!
Here is my original inspiration board:

Until next week,

Happy DIYing!