Friday, July 31, 2009

Freezer Paper Stencils and a Homemade Shower Curtain


We just moved into a new home. Well, it's not a new home, it's actually rather old. But it's new to us and it's been remodeled, so it looks new. I couldn't find a shower curtain to match the guest bathroom (and the rest of our western decor). Actually I found a few, but they were all over $100 and I'm too cheap to pay that kind of money for a shower curtain. So, what does a girl like me do in this situation?

Make one. And that's exactly what I did.

I made it exactly how I wanted and I only paid $8 for all of the material.

I bought 2 yards of white muslin that was 84 inches wide. A standard shower curtain measures 70 inches wide by 72 inches long, so I finished my piece of muslin to match those measurements.

I first folded over the raw edges half an inch, then half an inch again so that the raw edge was hidden inside. Then I sewed down the length. Since I had cut two yards (72") it now measured 70 inches with the finished edges. Then for the top and bottom of the curtain I folded the selvage three inches down and then over itself and sewed down that length as well.

Are you lost yet? Sorry there aren't any pictures to follow along.

Then I took a regular vinyl shower liner and laid it on top of my shower curtain. I marked where the holes needed to be. Then I proceeded to stitch buttonholes along the top edge of the curtain.

And then it was done.

Hold on!

Done?

I couldn't leave it just plain white could I? Of course not!

Now for the fun part :)

First I sewed a few decorative eyelets in a random pattern all over the top 2/3 of the curtain. Then I found a design I liked of a cowboy and traced it onto freezer paper. Then I cut it out and ironed the shiny side of the freezer paper down onto the curtain. The plastic on the freezer paper melts to the fabric to create a perfect stencil. Paint will only penetrate the open areas, but will not soak into anywhere that there is freezer paper. When the paint dries, the freezer paper simple peels right off with no damage to the material. It leaves an image that almost looks silk screened. So that's exactly what I did with my cowboy and his noble horse. And the decorative eyelets look like stars don't you think?

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