Good morning everybody! Today I wanted to share a guest post I wrote for Cassie of Primitive & Proper a couple weeks ago. It’s all about getting creative with linens and using them to really polish off a space, and I thought you’d be interested in reading in case you missed it the first time around. Now before I lose you non-sewers, let me just say that a few projects on my list don’t require thread at all!
We’ve all been there. You search high and low for the perfect curtains or pillows you’ve been imagining in your head, only to find out that they don’t exist. Never fear! Here are a few creative ways to find your perfect linens without breaking your budget.
Curtains
Sew them yourself. When I was working on our guest room, I envisioned a bright citrus-y floral pattern for the curtains and accent pillows. After months of looking for pre-made curtains, I finally found and ordered the perfect fabric online to sew my own. The curtain materials I bought ended up costing about what two neutral lined panels would have cost me – but my curtains made me 100x happier than any store-bought panels would have!
Since then, I’ve changed the color scheme in this room and sewed a new pair of curtains. This time around I didn’t bother sewing tabs for the back of the panels – instead I just hot glued on some ribbon and hung ’em up!
Better yet, turn a flat sheet into a pair of curtains. So you say you hate to sew? If you are lucky enough to track down your perfect curtain material in sheet form, why not cut the flat sheet in half, Heat N’ Bond (or straight stitch) the side seams, and hang those bad boys up? That’s essentially what we did for our dining room curtains, and nobody would know they started out as a $10 sheet.
Shower Curtains
While you’re buying flat sheets, pick up one for a new shower curtain. Are you convinced I’m crazy yet? When we were working on our bathroom remodel, I spotted what I thought was my DREAM shower curtain online. It was $40 + shipping, but I thought totally worth it until it arrived and was the worst shade of pistachio green you’ve ever seen! I sent that baby back asap and dreamed up a DIY solution using a flat white sheet. Our new shower curtain cost about half what the previous one did, and as a bonus, it’s the perfect shade of yellow!
Instead of using a shower curtain in your bathroom, turn it into a pillow. Say you’re not necessarily working on a bathroom redo, but rather wanting to spruce up your couch with some new throw pillows. Don’t pass by those shower curtains too quickly! Sometimes the patterns and colors you’ll find on a $20 shower curtain will be exactly what you’re looking for, and the fabric will be extra durable to boot. I was thrilled when I found the perfect fabric for our living room pillows on a chance stroll down the shower curtain aisle at Target.
Pillows
Think outside the box when it comes to pillow fabric. Sometimes buying fabric in curtain form can be much less expensive than buying it by the yard. The heavy gray linen I used on our Euro shams in our master bedroom wasn’t from the fabric store. It was a leftover Ikea curtain panel. It was cheaper, and now our new pillows match our actual curtains perfectly!
You don’t have to know how to sew to make a pillow from a placemat. Fabric placemats, pillow stuffing, and a hot glue gun can be your best friends when it comes to making pretty (and pretty cheap) pillows. I made two accent pillows out of placemats using this method. The pillows only cost a few bucks to make, compared to the $10 and up I would have paid elsewhere.
The moral of the story? It’s ok to get creative with fabrics in your home, rather than settling for off-the-shelf linens. Sheets can become curtains and placemats can become pillows. Think outside the box when it comes to fabric, and you (and your wallet) will be pleased with the results!
Have you used fabric for a unique purpose in your home? Any fabric-hacking tips to share?
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