How to Make DIY Blackout Curtains

Remember back in February when I posted about my snow day project?

It's still not done.

Not the curtains. I finished those up in four-ish days working during naps and after Norie was in bed.

That sounds really quick now, but at the time it felt like forever. I ran out of thread and bent two needles including one as I back-stitched the very last seam of the very last curtain.

Grrr.

I even hung them, as long as you count thumb tacking them to the wall hanging them.

I had to. Norie will not sleep in a well lit space and snow plus lots of windows equals a super well lit space.

The part I can't get done is the curtain rods. I'm way too cheap to buy them so I'm going to spray paint some EMT (à la this tutorial) and add some finials you might recognize, but it's been too cold.

No curtain rods means no curtain reveal, but since my blog buddy, Crystal, (like my real, bi-directional blog friend who knows who I am) wanted to know how I made them I figure I can give you the run down on the sewing part of the process and how cheaply I made them.

I had been trying to figure out what I was going to do for curtains in the play room for a while. The room could seriously use some temperature moderation (it has two huge windows and no heating vents) and I knew eventually the light factor would be become an issue with Norie's 7pm bedtime. I found some king sheets on super clearence at Target and bought two sets (I checked the dimensions listed on the package and did some mental math to figure out how many I needed to make six 84" curtains). They were $11.38 each. I couldn't wait to chop them up.

I used Ana White's Tab Top Curtains which I've done before, but this time I added the blackout fabric. I got it for a steal too. No really, 60% off home decor fabrics at JoAnn's with a President's Day coupon. Since I needed 14 yards of the stuff and it usually runs $6.99 a yard I saved like 60 bucks.  My total was only $42.65 including tax. Woot! I bought so much they put it back on a roll for me and I had to unroll it on the living room floor to cut it.

I didn't have to make any changes to Ana's Tab Top Curtain Plan to line them. I just cut the blackout fabric into 84" sections and lined the curtains with them. To make sure I sewed the blackout fabric in the right place I folded the fabric over 5/8" (the plan says 1/2", but I have this thing about 5/8" so I guess technically I made a tiny change) at the top and sides and ironed it. Then I folded the top down 4" and ironed it to make a crease to follow.

When you unfold it will look like this.

I laid the blackout fabric up next to the crease line and even with the fabric I folded over so that it would be inside the finished edge, but not all folded up in the finished edge. Hopefully that makes sense. If not, let me know.

I took a close up so you could see what I mean.

Then I just folded the fabric over again around the blackout fabric and pinned and stitched it at like 1/2" because I'm a little neurotic and I like finishing seams like that to be 1/8" from the edge instead of a 1/4".

I did the same thing on the other side and just wrapped the blackout fabric in the same basic way in the top and bottom hems.

Sheets - $11.38 x 2= $22.76

Blackout fabric = $42.65

Thread (because I ran out and had to buy more) = $3.22

Total = $68.63

That's only $11.44 a curtain. Austin says I should figure in my time and they would become really expensive, but DIY is meant for people who have more time than cash, right?

Kansas Agriculture and Health Summit

I'm having a hard time verbalizing everything I want to express about my experience yesterday, so bear with me. It was just so awesome and I got so excited that I'm having a hard time organizing it into a coherent set of thoughts. I tried last night, but I couldn't make it work so I'm up early this morning having another go at it.

Deep breaths. Lets start with the context.

Yesterday I went to the Kansas Agriculture and HealthSummit. I got an email early this week promoting it as an event to

 "kick off the conversation in Kansas about the intersection of food, farming, health care and public health" 

If you've read by blog for a while I'm sure you've noticed that food and gardening are two of my passions,but what you probably don't know is that my CV lists my "Research Interests" as

"Human interaction with the environment through agriculture as it relates to the experience of health and disease..."

Are you starting to see why I got all excited yesterday?

I was very interested in talking about agricultural policy and health in Kansas, but it really got me thinking about things a little closer to home.

Like growing food for my family and feeding them the way I want to feed them instead of the default which seems to be eating whatever we can scrap together in the half hour between when I get home and when Norie needs to be fed and put to bed. Don't get me wrong. It's generally been pretty tasty, but it hasn't exactly been produce heavy.

I also got reinspired to help other people with traditional skills like growing food and cooking it and canning and home dairying and sewing and all those things our grandparents know or knew exactly how to do but are incredibly rare skills in my generation.

Don't worry. I'm still really excited about decorating and building and you'll see tons of posts about that you'll just also start seeing more about gardening and food. They all work together in making a family and a home and that's just the stuff that I love to share here.

On my to do list for today:

• Take the puppies and Norie for a walk
• Read this week's entry in my Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener's Handbook and actually do the things it says I should do this week
• Measure for the bracket for those blinds
• Love on Norie
• Work on my Birthday Desk
• Clean the kitchen
• Fold and put away laundry
• Add things to my birthday/Christmas wishlist on Pinterest

I better get started.

I have a new USDA hardiness zone

That might not sound like a big deal. Or maybe it does depending on whether or not you're an avid gardener. (If you're really interested you can find out if you do too by checking your zip code on the 2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map Website and read the USDA's news release about it here.) The new map looks like this.
 

Pretty, huh? I'm such that's not what they had in mind, but it is. I really like the color gradient on the map.Wouldn't it make great gardening inspired wall art? I totally think so.

Here's a close-up of Kansas.

Where I live was Zone 5b (the aqua color) based on the 1990 map and now it's 6a (the darker green).

What does that actually mean? It means that based on weather data for the last 30 years (1976-2005 to be exact, the average minimum temperature in my area is slightly warmer than it was from 1974-1986 (the dates they used to produce the 1990 map).

It also means that I could theoretically plant plants which can handle temperatures down to -10 F, but can't quite hack -15 with a reasonable expectation of their survival. So far, I've found that means I now have the opportunity to plant lesser Calamint, Colewort, Crocosmia, Lavender Cotton, and Leadwort. There are also some plants that need the amount of cold weather expected in Zone 5 to thrive. Those might not do so well. It could also mean that it gets a little too hot for some plants that are zone 5 although hardiness zones are only reflective of cold tolerance so they don't necessarily tell you about heat tolerance.

Fascinating, huh?