Where to hem and hook curtains?

Great fabric!

Noooo - it isn't silk. Poly/rayon taffeta. I bought 9 yards for $70.

How about Roman shades then. Something like this?

My preference would be to leave the fabric as uncut as possible.

I wish I was better at graphics.

Imagine one piece of fabric per window section - contained within the frame. Sew tunnels out of a co-ordinating fabric along: 1) the back at the line where the top of the fabric should be when you want the top section of the window uncovered; 2) the bottom of the curtain. Tension rods would run through the tunnels. The fabric should be slightly billowy between the two tension rods.

Above the top tension rod, have enough fabric to be proportionally billowy to the bottom section (not a big pouf/poof, just enough for a little drape).

I'm assuming the fabric is 'good' on both sides here.

Use the frogs to attach the top section of the curtain to the inside of the frame (velcro the top half of the frogs onto the frame) when you want a full curtain effect. I'd consider spraying the fabric with a starch at the top to give it some oomph - don't want it looking droopy between the frogs .

Let the top section of the curtains fall down - toward the room - over the bottom section when the frogs are released. You'd have a two-tiered fabric effect, sort of peplum-y - with the half frogs as decoration.

I think the trickiest part would be figuring out which way to attach the frogs so that they'd look good whether they were at the top of the frame or at the bottom of the 'peplum'.

oh - I'm using both parts of the frogs in my scenario

you could stitch them back to back - that would take care of it looking good from either side

Like ehBeth's scenario.. with or without the poofery.

think of it as a slight billow in a sail vs poofery

(mostly that it's not stretched tight)

Gotcha.

You could do a version of the cafe style curtains in Calamity's photo. Hang the rod at the point where your window opens and hang a separate rod above that with a valance that is long that it extends past the lower rod in a layered look. Then, when you wanted the window in use for a breeze, all you'd need to do is push the valance portion to the sides while keeping the lower portion of the curtain closed for your continued privacy.

Here's a bunch of different styles of valances

http://www.windowtoppers.com/valances.html

And here's a photo of the concept I'm trying to describe.

http://flickr.com/photos/country-home-decor/2192068085/

The difference would be that rather than the lower portion being split for opening, I'd make the valance into two sections that can be opened in the middle.

With this concept you'd still get the effect of the beautiful fabric while having a functional window for air flow. You could use frogs to hang both portions if you were so inclined, though I'd recommend rods and attach the frogs to the sides of the lower curtain as a way to button them to the edge of the window.

ehBeth -- that is very much like original design, with a few modifications.

I think I'll cut up a piece, sew up the top and sides and play with it a bit before I make any signifigant changes.

CJane - roman shade won't work as they cover the top part of the window that I need to use for ventilation.

I like to leave fabric pieces as whole as possible because I often repurpose them. I'm also making new dining room curtains and the old ones are going to cover some old beat up lampshades.

I hit on kind of a cool idea that I thought I would share (if I can describe it).

I hemmed the curtain on three sides into an overwide panel, pinned it up and started playing around with pleats, tie backs, etc.

While playing around I realized that if I had some kind of highly manuverable tie back device that I could drape the curtains in all kinds of cool ways, no matter which end of the curtain I needed to get out of the way.

And then it hit me -- barrettes!

I went to the craft store, bought some oversized barrette blanks, glued some mosaic tiles to them and they work perfectly! You can gather and clamp the curtain wherever you want it.

I also bought some alligator clips, glued some funky stones from the jewelry department to the clips and nailed them into the sill so that I can adjust the pleats or move the top edge of the curtain to wherever I want it without tieing myself to any particular look.

It looks pretty cool but whether it will stand the test of Mo and time remains to be seen.....

Pics pics pics

When you get a chance. Sounds like a really good idea and I may steal it.

I had to dismantle everything today as Mr. B had to do some sanding in that room. As soon as I have a chance to mock it up again I'll get some photos.

Here's kind of a quick mock up

The top clip with curtain pleated:



The barrette (which I think I'll have to redo with some right sized tiles. Now that I know the barrette will work I don't mind spending a bit on the decorations.)..



I think once I get everything properly hung and hemmed and weighted that they'll look pretty cool.

When I want to open the top for ventelation I can just put up a tension bar and fold the curtain over the bar. Easy! And I'm not stuck with just one look.

Verra interesting!

I like the flexibility. That top clip is cool, too.

I found some scrabble tiles that fit the barrette blanks perfectly! Now I just need to come up with three words not exceeding seven letters that I want to spell out!

Can we make suggestions?

"Welcome"

"Imagine"

"Upbeat"

(For all I know you could google "Positive words of seven letters or less".)

Oh yes, absolutely, make suggestions!

"Imagine" is perfect!

Playing around a bit I found that three and five letters work too, if I use sideways "I" to fill up the spaces.

I could also probably use my wood burning tools to make exclaimation points or plus signs or other simple modifications.

How about:

-THINK-
IMAGINE
-LEARN-

?

CREATE
DESIGN
UNIQUE

CREATE is great!

Maybe EXPLORE for the third one.

IMAGINE
CREATE
EXPLORE

That would be cool!