Kitchen Curtains

I made these curtains over the weekend. On Saturday they were 14 1/4″ long. Greg came down the stairs after I put them up and said “hmmm, little short?” I was thinking the same thing but having someone else confirm that they were in fact too short was all I needed to fix the problem. They all came down Sunday morning. I ripped out the top hanging seam and made the finished curtain 16″ long. As Goldilocks would say, just right.

I’m blessed to be married to someone with an incredible eye. The downside is that he often forgets that sometimes it’s just better to lie.

The curtains were inspired by a broken refrigerator. Friday evening we finally gave in and admitted something was wrong when the ice cream was dripping down to shelf #3. After unplugging and cleaning the fridge spotless the rest of the kitchen looked a bit dowdy. I made the curtains. Then I cleaned the windows because they just weren’t doing the curtains justice. Then the woodwork looked a bit splattered and needed a scrubbing. And, man oh man, that range hood was scary. By Sunday evening the whole room was cleaner than any of us could ever remember.

Here’s a picture because it will never look this good again and I want to remember what it could be if only I had a staff:

Old curtains:

Project details:

• 16″ long curtain for a 48″ long window. Is there some rule about 1/3 the size when making cafe style curtains? I really do think the size is just perfect.
• 3 yards of Amy Butler Lotus decorator weight cotton for the top tier. I’ve had this fabric forever and am very excited I finally made it up.
• Moda’s Urban Chicks for the 2nd tier, 1″ band. I realized after putting them up you can see bird parts like feet and heads and tails. I love watching the robins out my kitchen windows. One of those little surprise treats I didn’t think about when I chose the fabric.
• 3″ band of a Japanese print from Superbuzzy on the bottom tier. I’ve used all the green and now all the blue. I really should have a bought a bolt of each.
• An up close, detail shot of the curtain on Flickr.

Let’s hope the curtain excitement will sustain me until the repair guy comes.