DIY Curtains

I've been searching high and low for some cute, inexpensive curtains to match my newly painted and assembled desk in our office. I found some cute expensive ones, and some ugly or plain inexpensive ones (and by inexpensive, I mean under $15-$20. unrealistic? maybe.). But these ugly windows really need some lovin':

Actually, that little window is actually kind of cute without those blinds, but I have to have something so our awkward German neighbor and his dog aren't creepin' at me and Brian all day long.

So, after contemplating spending more money than I have on curtains from Etsy, I resigned myself to just making the curtains myself.

I went to JoAnn Fabric last night to search through red-tag fabric (and I had a 20% off your entire purchase including sale items coupon to boot!) and of course I found the perfect fabric . . . just not in the red tag section. Not in the sale section at all, actually (and most home dec fabrics were 40% off. just not mine). Sigh . . . . I decided to go for it anyway.

Now, this was an end-of-bolt fabric and gave me 3 yards, 24 inches . . . just under the 4 yards I wanted. Decisions decisions. I loved it. But buying it would mean I couldn't make floor-length curtains like I wanted and I'd have to use a really tiny seem allowance to salvage as much of the fabric as possible, and my curtains for the little window couldn't be as long as I wanted those to be as well. It just didn't seem like the best idea.

I got it anyway. I love the fabric and the curtains will still be cute (albeit shorter than anticipated) and it made me feel slightly better that I had another 40% off one regular priced fabric coupon!

In addition to buying this fabric (with a 40% off coupon!), I needed a frame (which was on sale AND I had a 25% off frames including sale items coupon with this one), and I also needed some not-as-exciting or colorful fabric to make some curtains for our little cottage Up North (another not on sale fabric but it was cheap AND I had another 20% my total purchase coupon).
So, with coupons in hand I forced the cashier (nicely, of course) to let me do 3 separate transactions so I could use all of my coupons. I figure I spend enough money there that I should be able to take advantage of their coupons once in awhile, right?

I'll be working on these curtains while we're on vacation next week (I mean, seriously, what better way to spend a relaxing week of vacation?!) and when I return I'll hopefully have some beautiful curtains to show for it.

P.S. if you're in need of any of these JoAnn's coupons, check them out here:
http://printable-coupons.blogspot.com/2005/12/jo-ann-coupons.html