Altered Curtains

Let's talk about curtains.

I've had these two panels of curtains for years, they're full length, brown and gauzy and I like them a lot.  I found them for super cheap and I've used them in our bedroom for years until I finally replaced them with something even nicer which meant these curtains got moved to Catie's room.  Despite being gauzy they actually keep out a surprising amount of light when paired with our cheap blinds and they worked just great until it came time to move around the bed to make room for Eden's crib.

Let's take a brief pause while I tell you another story.  

I grew up in a really small town which meant we drove to the slightly larger town a lot and even when it wasn't even remotely in our path my Mom couldn't help but drive by this one house over and over.  This house had a large living room window with some nice sheer curtains but they then pushed their couch directly against the curtains, squashing them against the window making this horrible bulge.  This drove Mom crazy and we drove by every time hoping that this time they will have fixed the curtains.  This went on for years until finally, one day they got blinds and Mom had some peace.

Back to Catie's curtains... remember how I told you they were full length?  Making room for the crib meant Catie's bed needed to be pushed against the window so the curtains that were once fine now looked like this.

While you couldn't see a horrible bulge from the outside you could imagine how I felt every time I saw these curtains squashed behind the bed and my Mother's voice rang in my ears.  And if they had actually stayed this way I would probably have left them but the bed in this position gave Catie amazing freedom to sit and look out her window so she'd pull back the panel until it all pooled on her bed.  She often sat on the curtain and every morning when I go get her she'd have to pull herself out from the other side of the fabric.  Also, one last story... it's been super hot here so we put Catie to bed in just a t-shirt and diaper but the quality of diapers we buy is clearly lacking because in the morning her diaper was laying on the floor and she'd peed the bed, and the curtains, since they sit on the bed.  Changing sheets is one thing but seriously, I have to wash the curtains too?

Looking out the window also required her to pull aside the slats in the blinds, let me show you what that's done (and this is after I spent some time bending the slats back in place, they look pretty good in this photo).

Leaving the blinds up wasn't really an option because it was too light in the room without them.  So I couldn't just take down the curtain because she's ruining the blinds and I couldn't just shorten the curtains because without the blinds it's too light in there.  Clearly something needed to be done.

I chopped off a bunch of length, re-hemmed the curtains and added some blackout fabric to the back of the panels. Now I've pulled the blinds all the way up, tucked the string out of the way and replaced her now much heavier curtains (which make her room incredibly dark).  Problem solved.