Conservatory Curtain update and The Monthly Stitch November challenge

I have done no serious sewing this week just sewn most of my conservatory curtains.  To be honest I seem to be very short on free time right now. No idea why because I am doing nothing particular to what I normally do.  My curtains certainly make the conservatory feel warmer.  They are suspended from the roof by Ikea hooks ( meant for kitchen rails) and net curtain poles from Wilko. It will not cost us much in poles although I do not know how much exactly because I started to buy these months ago. They vary depending on the length from £3 each to £5 each. The blinds are Ikea cheapo blinds for £3 each and have sticky pads at one end. They work fine on the windows but have not been a great success on the roof panels. 

 We cannot afford the several thousand quid for posh blinds so I tried these. They look great when they stay up but when the sun comes out the glue on the sticky pads gets hot and they all fall off. The curtains are just panels of fabric with overlocked edges and a channel along the top edge to keep them as light in weight as possible.

  

 It was quite difficult to take the photos so hopefully you can see what I am talking about.

 

You can see one roof blind down here but at the hottest of summer days we had nearly all of them hanging down so we started to try to fix them but adding Wilko curtain rods into the edge by the top of the walls. 

They will actually slot in there. We staple the edge with the pads onto the pole and then slot it behind the rail that runs around the top edge of each wall panel. You can just about see in the photo above.  It depends probably on whether your conservatory is constructed the same way for this to work but it has been very successful on the few walls I have done so far.

Then to secure curtains I have put them onto similar poles but suspended by Ikea hooks. Unfortunately in all our various attempts to make the blinds stay where we want them we have damaged a few but ideally we will end up replacing all the blinds next year but use this method since it seems to work well.

The actual room temperature is just the same due to heaters keeping it warm but the overall warm feeling is due to it not being just white everywhere I think. 

Here is a safetypinned organza curtain on the back of the curtain panel. Normally these organza curtains hang up on poles but I need to keep the total number of poles to a minumum so we had to safety pin in place instead.

In summer we have just the blinds but with organza nets over some of the windows so we do not frighten the wild birds off the bird-table outside. They are very shy and if they see us we get no visitors but if we have organza we can see them and they do not feel intimidated by us. To keep the organza nets but not sew them permanently I have safety pinned them to the back of my new “winter” curtains. 

The makeshift poles and hooks effort means the curtains do not fit right into each corner so I am going to do a kind of “swag” but at the corner rather than over each window. Then hopefully I will make a tent-like effect which will feel warm and inviting for winter. I will show photos of this later once its done. For now this is as far as I have got with my curtain making.  More later.

 THE MONTHLY STITCH NOVEMBER CHALLENGE

Anyway besides finishing the rest of my curtains for my conservatory I am now planning on what to make for the Monthly Stitch November challenge.

I really fancy doing this challenge because I bought these lovely ankle boots about 12 years ago.

 

Well I say about……………at LEAST 12 years ago. As you can probably see by the photo they are hardly worn. I think possibly only once worn so I intend to make something to wear with these lovelies. Not too sure what yet but some kind of autumn friendly outfit with a bit or a lot of leopard-skin should work I think. I am torn in fact between leopard print and black. I have very little animal print in my current wardrobe so this could be a very fun challenge. I just need to decide what exactly to make.

What do you think would go well with these?

Thanks for visiting,

Bracken