Curtains for my home office closet

After my oldest stepson moved out, I moved my computer from the "den" (now the craft room) to his then-empty former bedroom. Bill took the hanging doors off the closet so I could put in 2 file cabinets (which didn't fit with the doors). It's been about 10-11 years now...

Over the past 1 1/2 years, I've thought about hanging two hand-painted bamboo curtains across the closet opening, but eBay and Google searches didn't yield anything I liked enough.

I got the idea to sew curtains instead from a variety of home design shows on television. The idea stuck, but action is another thing altogether...

Last weekend while organizing the linen closet, I found a set of sheer white panels that we no longer used - so I hung them across the closet opening to get a feel for what it would be like to have something hanging there. I liked the "something" but not the white sheers.

Joann Fabrics' 99¢ sale on fat quarters drew me in this morning. (Fat quarters are pieces of fabric cut to about 18 inches x about 22 inches.) I spent 2 hours picking out 40 different fabric patterns to make 8 patchwork-like panels in 4 color themes (red, yellow/orange/brown, green, purple) to hang at the closet entrance. Instead of combining the 8 panels to make 4 or 2 panels, I'll keep the 8 panels separate so I'll have the option of hanging them a variety of ways. For example:

2 red, 2 yellow, 2 green, 2 purple
• 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 green, 2 purple, 1 green, 1 yellow, 1 red
• 2 purple, 1 green, 2 yellow, 1 green, 2 red
• etc.

Of course, making curtains means using the sewing machine again (see first and only machine sewing project so far), which makes me nervous (because I'm a recovering perfectionist who has to overcome possible failure or producing a half-assed product due to not being well-practiced at machine sewing). Way back in September 2003, I was hot to trot about learning to quilt...but haven't done anything more than get quilting books from Mom, buy a few more, and look at the pretty pictures. Someday though...

I've now organized the 4 color themes of 10 fabric patterns into the order I want to use, stacked bags and large plastic containers of yarn against the craft room wall, cleared off and dusting the sewing desk, setup the sewing machine, setup the top of the vertical file cabinet (which stores yarn) as an area I can measure and cut fabric strips, brought the ironing board and iron from the garage (very rarely used in this house) into the craft room, dusted them and setup the iron board.

And, whew, I'm ready to start making the curtains...tomorrow. Tonight, Bill and I are going to watch the latest Netflix arrival: Jarhead. (Any excuse not to use the sewing machine is a good one!)

[April 28, 2006 update] Check out the finished closet curtains.