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Cutting Edge Curtains

07.28.11 By //
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I need curtains in every room in my house! Truly! So I decided that instead of footing that hefty bill, I might try my hand at making some of my own!

Materials:

Fabric

Cutting Edge Stencil

DecoArt Fabric Painting Medium

DecoArt  Americana Acrylic Paints

Ultra Fine Roller or Stippling Brush (though for a large panel you may want a roller or you will be at it forever!)

I found a bolt of White Muslim at my local craft and fabric store and it happened to be on sale for around $15 for the entire 15 yard bolt! Can I get a yahoo?

Since the curtains I was working on were for my Monster Mash’s room, I kept them simple and made them on the less wide side of the spectrum. Blocking light is not what I was going for, and these were going to serve more of a decorative purpose. I measured out 96” and since my fabric was 44” wide, I simply cut the panel in half lengthwise so that I had 2 – 22” x 96” panels which worked out perfectly for the particular stencil I was using!

I chose an oversized houndstooth patterned stencil and wanted to print them in a pale gray color. I didn’t have that color so I made my own!

I started with a small 2oz. bottle of the DecoArt Fabric Painting Medium. The instructions suggest a 2:1 ratio of paint to fabric medium so I measured out a tad less then 4 oz of white paint.

To get the gray color I wanted I ultimately dripped in 86 drops of black and mixed that potion on up!

I taped my fabric to the table (glass so it easily wipes clean, but if you are working on another surface material you should prepare properly using plastic or cardboard to protect) and then taped my Cutting Edge Stencil to the fabric and the table as well. Using my roller brush I began at the top and ONLY rolled in a downward motion. I did not use a back and forth or up and down motion. One direction works best so as not to have spillover (or under as the case may be) or paint spread under the stencil itself, and also keeps the stencil from moving around while you work.

I taped my fabric to the table (glass so it easily wipes clean, but if you are working on another surface material you should prepare properly using plastic or cardboard to protect) and then taped my Cutting Edge Stencil to the fabric and the table as well. Using my roller brush I began at the top and ONLY rolled in a downward motion. I did not use a back and forth or up and down motion. One direction works best so as not to have spillover (or under as the case may be) or paint spread under the stencil itself, and also keeps the stencil from moving around while you work.

I do not happen to know a darn thing about ironing, but I managed to get this done without burning, breaking, or ruining anything so I think it’s safe to assume you can too even if you don’t know how! I set the iron to a setting of 4 on my iron and followed the instructions to heat set for 30 seconds. To do this I simply moved my iron in a circular manner over a section of 4 little houndstooth thingys (no clue what you call them?) for 30 seconds or a bit more to account for the moving about. Then a gentle wash in the washing machine followed by a tumble dry and that is it! So simple I could hardly believe it! I will absolutely do this again and again until I have curtained the whole place! Yahoo

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