Journey To Me

Frugal Friday

Today is Frugal Friday!

When I bought my house 3 years ago, it came with mini blinds, really ugly discolored mini blinds.  I grew up in an old farmhouse that had beautiful lace curtains in the living room, velvet drapes in the bedrooms and the pull down shades on every single window.  I started to look at buying draperies for my home and quickly realized that there was no way I would be able to afford the type I wanted.  I live in Northern Wisconsin, so I wanted heavy thermal lined draperies to help keep the heat in during our cold winters where it can be below zero for days at a time. 

So, after getting really discouraged, I realized that my Mother taught me how to sew and that I could make my own draperies!

I designed them myself, purchased fabric from the outlet store (close to 100 yards), and spent about 60 hours sewing them, but do they ever look beautiful!  I would have paid well over $2500 to have an interior designer make them (I know this because I have a Mother-In-Law who is an interior designer and that was the estimation she gave me.) And I did it all for under $800 (hardware to hang the draperies are included in this price!).  Plus, they are made of a name brand fabric (this didn't matter to me, I just liked the colors and patterns) but I know it does matter to some people and hopefully will help when we sell our house in the future. 

Now I know that $800 still seems like a lot of money, but I made curtains for all 12 windows in our house.  One being a huge bay window that now has floor to ceiling drapes and 3 being for our sunroom which has three huge windows.  This also includes a decorative valance for each of the windows. 

I still feel very proud of my homemade draperies, and even more proud of the fact that I saved approximately $1700 by taking the time to make them myself! Even though I would have NEVER paid $2500 for drapes for any house, even if I did have the money to do it!!!

Untitled Comment

10:45, Friday, September 28, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous

Hi! I just wanted to comment that I am in the process of making curtains for my new house too. I really wanted red curtains for my son's room but I couldn't find what I wanted at a price I was willing to pay. We have an older house with old windows and so I wanted them to be warm and to block the sun so maybe he would take a nap in his room in the afternoon. I couldn't even find plain red material at a price that I was willing to pay for them so I bought some twin sized sheets in the red that I wanted. It worked really well. I did line them with some $1 a yard fabric so that the sun wouldn't come through. I was really pleased with how they turned out. It was also really easy because by using the sheets I didn't even have to hem the material saving me time also. So you can find what you want if you are willing to be flexable with what you use.
Evelyn Masters

Curtains

08:36, Saturday, September 29, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous

Hi. I'm Mom2fur of Sortafrugal.blogspot.com. I bet your curtains were beautiful! And considering what you'd pay retail for curtains...never mind having them custom made...I think you did very well! Don't forget that you not only saved the cost of fabric...you saved on labor, too!