Projects Galore: Austrian Curtains

My next project has, once again, to do with the bedroom.

I have often watched period films set in Elegant homes and seen, what I believe are called "Austrian" Curtains, or "Balloon" curtains, including, though I cannot find a screenshot right now, Lucy Honeychurch's Room in the Pensione in the 1985 "A Room With a View."(Helena Bonham Carter.)

Photos are not mine, they are from Pinterest. click the pictures for the link.

I have long admired their elegance, and been searching for a way to incorporate them into our room. First off, they cannot be bought for less than a kidney, as they are rare and so have to be custom made usually out of silk tulle.

Sadly, this young family cannot afford $200+ a panel... So I turned to my sewing room.

Also, Since our new bed doesn't have a headboard, the clanging of the ancient Venetian blinds that were on there was seriously annoying!!

But how to do it? I long debated buying a bolt of some material or other, to have enough fabric to do it. I threw around the idea of linen, then went down to muslin, dabbled with satin or tulle, but all those options involved a lot of work and still $100+ in materials.

Then brilliance hit...

I bought four more cheap sheer panel curtains like we had "Draped" the room in.

I flat felled two of them together length-wise, and ironed a crease along the center.

Then came my handy dandy Ruffler foot that came with my Treadle.

I call these photos simply "Froth" Haha!

This process cut out all measuring, cutting, hemming, and well, most of the grunt work, and turned several days worth of trouble into just a few hours!

And voile!

The final result!

Eventually I can hand sew small rings on the back at intervals and turn them into shades that will raise, but right now I am seriously loving the color of the light that comes through them!

I will however be getting a matching set of red panels to go along the sides and hid the mild wonky-ness of them.

What do you think? leave me a comment and let me know!