If you’re on the hunt for inexpensive curtains with a unique (and even vintage) flair, you are well aware of how long and tiring the search may be! I just haven’t had the money for new curtains, and I couldn’t find a set of 4 curtain panels I liked at the thrift store, so discouragement began to set in. Until it occurred to me, why not take two sets of curtain panels and splice them together, making four panels with two different fabrics? So I set out on a thrift store adventure to find two pairs of curtains I quite admired. But, because I am impatient and didn’t find what I wanted after visiting four stores, I settles on a pair of flat sheets instead. And as I was walking to the register, i spied a lovely striped valance and lace panel. Hmmm… the wheels were turning.

When I arrived at my home, I didn’t skip a beat before getting to work. And I photographed the process along the way so that you can make your own set of funky curtains with thrifted sheets! It was a fun process from beginning to end, and you really just can’t beat the price tag. $4 for 4 curtain panels!

Obviously, the first step would be getting out to the thrift store and looking for fabric to use. I used old sheets, but you could certainly utilize vintage curtains (as I had originally intended) or other linens available. And don’t limit yourself to just large pieces of fabric. Be sure to check out the valances and such smaller fabric pieces to utilize as trim. You could even do a patchwork of fabric scraps, if you are extra ambitious!

I needed my curtains to be 84″ long to hang properly on my curtain rods. But first, I needed to see if the valance fabric would be wide enough to continue the entire length. Fortunately, it was right on the money! So, I went ahead and measured the sheets to 90 inches (I added 6″ for a hem) and cut them to length. Tip: to save time, I folded the sheets in half and them trimmed them to size.

After trimming both flat sheets, I needed to cut them into 4 widths since I was making 4 curtain panels. So, keeping the sheet folded in half, I cut it in half at the fold. Then I folded it in half again, cutting along the fold to make 4 pieces.

After I cut both flat sheets and the valance into 4 pieces 90 inches long, I organized them into piles and began the assembly process. I have very little sewing experience, and I didn’t want this to turn into a long process, so I just did a simple stitch to sew the two pieces together, creating the base for one panel. Make sure when you are sewing them together, you have the fronts of the sheets touch each other, with the backs of the sheets on the outside. It might seem like a no brainer, but remember- haste makes waste!

After you have sewed the two larger pieces together, now sew the trim piece. This piece was only 84 inches long, so I made sure to leave a three inch space at the top and at the bottom to make a nice hem with the larger pieces. The hem on the 84 inch valance fabric was already in tact, so I left it alone.

Now that all three pieces of fabric are sewn together, iron the curtain at the seams to flatten out the fabric. Next, iron a 3 inch hem at the top and bottom of the panel, to remove the need for pinning and such. After I ironed the hem, I did a quick stitch on the sewing machine to finish it off. And once again, if you are feeling ambitious, you may want to do a blind stitch to close the hem. I suppose I’m just not that picky.

Going through this process 4 times (one for each panel) didn’t take as long as I thought! I was pleasantly surprise. Although, it probably would have gone faster if it weren’t for the silly automatic-off feature on my iron! From start to finish, (not included shopping for the fabric) this project took me about four hours.

Note: I had originally planned these curtains for our living room, but after purchasing the kilim for this space, I decided they would be better suited to our bedroom. So now I have more hemming in store! Ah well.

And I have been driving it everywhere. To the Post Office, to the park, to the fair. Lots of fun places! (Minus the Post Office. I rode there, but it’s not a fun place.) And the coaster brakes usually only throw me off once per ride. Well, they don’t literally throw me off. But it really does take some getting used to the absence of handlebar brakes.

Leaving it locked to a post for the first time was a bit how I imagine leaving my 5 year-old-child at school for the first time would feel. I kept walking back to make sure it was still there. And it was. Whew!

For some reason these pictures don’t show the colors as accurately as I’d wished. I think my camera settings were off, and I couldn’t fix it completely in Photoshop. But I’m quite sure she will be making appearances in photos to come.

See the whole before, during, and after photos on my flickr set here. The change was very dramatic in person, but I don’t think the before pictures show just how horrible the bike was at the beginning. My dad and I were talking about how this was a much larger project than either of us had expected, and we felt that we should give the blanket warning to “do not try this at home,” like we did. It went okay for us, because my dad is a super dad and if he can’t do something, he has a friend that can (and will do it for free!). But it’s not an easy DIY, and can quickly turn into a disaster if you don’t know what you’re doing. If you all have any questions, I will answer them in the comments below.

(Oh and P.S. I am saving my pennies for a pretty basket, and I don’t think Archie (my Yorkie) will be riding in it, judging from the way he is scared to even sit in a laundry basket on the ground. And I think the thought of the basket falling from my bike with Mr. Archibald inside is just too much for me to bear.)

Last weekend was full of work, work, work! And no painting of the bicycle. I will admit, I was a little dissapointed that I haven’t been able to cruise around on her yet, but at least she is stripped and ready to go.

We arrive at the paint shop on Saturday morning at 9am. I chose a color very similar to the bicycle’s current teal color, although slightly lighter. I was keeping in mind that this is a restoration project, not just a refurbishment, so I would like it to be just a fresher version of the original.

Arriving back at my dad’s workshop, I spent an unexpected hour cleaning out massive piles of saw dust and scrap metal to make room for the work that was about to begin. I had already begun polishing out the rust of the chrome pieces (see the front braces above? It was pretty horrendous, yeah?), but Pop and I disassembled the bicycle so that we could tag team the stripping and polishing process.

The pedals were quite the little stinkers, as it took my dad about a half hour, a blow torch, creeping oil, massive vice grips, and eventually a saw to remove them. Needless to say, I will be replacing those.

The next part of the process involved stripping the pieces with chemicals, brushing off most of the paint from the sheet metal parts (fenders and gear shield) with a steel brush, and then finally sandblasting all of the painted parts. While Pop was sand blasting, I was hard and work polishing off the rusted out chrome and zinc plated pieces. Quite the workout for my fingers!

And so, I suppose this is the part where I say “To be continued.” :)