Use a Blind as a Sink Skirt

 Hello Readers. What could I do with an unused blind? I had this Roman blind that my sweet mother-in-law gave me. It was pretty but all my windows were covered. I have held onto it for a while but I wanted to use it for something. I finally thought of a great idea. I could make a skirt for my utility sink with it. 

 Do sinks need skirts? I thought this one did.

I wanted to hide under my not-very-cute utility sink. It looks like this one, it's useful but not pretty.

 This blind is made of thick fabric and really well put together. It was about 35' x 60'. It was large enough to make a great skirt for my sink. 

 You can see the strings and pulley system on the back of the blind. 

The first thing I did was remove all of those strings and loops. I didn't need any of this in my sink skirt. 

I also took the out the pieces that gave the blind structure and the wood that would be used to hang the blind on the wall. I didn't need any of this either. 

Then I measured to get the size I needed. Your sink will be different than mine. I was only covering 2 side of my sink because it is in a corner. The area of my sink that I wanted to cover was 45' wide and 34' tall.  

I cut the blind down in size as needed. I was cutting it into a rectangular shape. It needed to wrap around the side and front of my sink and I wanted it to hang down to the floor, or just above the floor. 

 I used my serger to finish the cut edges. It would connect the 2 layers of the blind and keep the fabric from fraying.  

 I wanted to use Velcro to attach the skirt to the sink. With Velcro, I could take it off the sink to clean it if I needed to. I used this Velcro that had sticky adhesive on the back. 

 

I cut my Velcro pieces 45' wide to wrap around the rim my sink. 

I peeled the Velcro off the paper and stuck one piece of it on the sink. I pressed it to the sink firmly and it really stuck to the sink well. 

I stuck the other side of the Velcro to the top edge of the skirt. It didn't stick to the fabric as well as the plastic side of the sink.

 

  I sewed the blind and the Velcro together to make sure they stayed together really well over time as it hangs on the sink. 

 I attached the skirt to the sink and it stayed on so well. I really wanted to hide the area under the sink and this skirt did that well. 

 

  I can just pull it over to reach under the sink. 

I think the skirt looks really nice and I loved how easy it was to put it all together. 

Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

 

 

  

 

Window Blinds to Summer Clothes

 Hello Readers. I took some fabric blinds down from the windows in my dining room and almost got rid of them. But then I realized I could make something out of that fabric. I liked the yellow and blue, just  not on my windows. They were pretty though. I decided to make a fun summer outfit from the fabric. 

 Before and after. 

These blinds were pretty but I replaced them. There was a second blind identical to this one, with all that fabric, I hoped I could make something really fabulous.  

I used this Simplicity 9408 pattern. I wanted the outfit in the middle. I liked the shorts with the long tunic style shirt. Let's get to work. 

 

When I say these are blinds, I mean they are Roman blinds with strings and a simple kind of pulley system in back to raise and lower them. I had to take everything apart to remove the strings and the lining and get the yellow fabric separated for me to use. 

 

I cut out all my pieces, including the neck and armhole facings. I hate neck facing, It is kind of a pain to sew in and it feels bulky to me. But, I was going to follow the pattern and do this right. (Spoiler- I did not follow the pattern and I did not do it right.)

 

The shorts came together easily. I first needed to sew the side seams.

 

Next I had to add the elastic waistband. I gave the shorts a simple hem. I followed the directions of the pattern for a pair of boxer shorts that I had because I didn't want to put in a zipper and I wanted a stretchy waistband. These shorts were not the difficult part of this outfit. 

 

Here is a look at the top. Can you spot the problem? It would never fit around my body. It was like a size 0-2. I did not check the measurements of the pattern carefully enough. I should have sized up to a bigger size in the top for sure. 

 Now what was I going to do??? I had run out of blinds. This was it. But my mom didn't raise a quitter, I'm going to do something.

 

This is literally all the fabric that I had left. Maybe if I had not cut out the neck and arm facings, I would have had more fabric. (I hate neck facings!!!) I had this small amount of very wide yellow grosgrain ribbon, I put it all together to make side panels. I was going to make the top and leave it sort of open on the sides. 

 

Short video of my mental break-down while I was working with this top.

 

This is what I ended up with. It had to work because I was out of fabric, out of patience and ready to fight this new top in a back alley somewhere. 
 

I tried this on and I was surprised because I loved how it turned out. It was comfortable and I liked the pop of bright yellow on the sides. The side panels cover everything that needed to be covered but the open sides are great for the heat on August. Thanks for reading along as I fought with this window blind upcycle, now go make something fun for yourself.