Savings on Smocking~

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I was singing the praises of these beautiful smocked curtains?

I knew then and there that I HAD to come up with a less expensive version of these beauties (i.e. one that didn't cost $108 per panel). And I had a plan.

Then while visiting my parents the other day, my Papa dragged me to the basement to look at some of the things we stored at their house before we moved to Massachusetts. Lo and behold, in the box were a pair of curtains from the Princess' nursery.

I remembered them immediately (why had I stored them away? hello?) and knew they would make the perfect smocked beauties I envisioned.

They were inexpensive PB knockoffs...from Tar-jay I believe. But they were just what I needed. Slightly sheer...and they had the added bonus of having a "grid" woven right in. The plaid pattern saved me having to make measurements which was what I was dreading the most in my "smocking" plan.

Now, I have a disclaimer to make. If anyone reading this blog knows how to smock, please forgive me. I just flew by the seat of my pants.

I figured it would be kind of like creating in fabric, a hairstyle that I have done numerous times on the Princess.

And it was. Sort of. I started out by creating a sort of "M" pleat on every other stripe. Then I simply sewed each pleat through about three times and knotted it off.

I then took each of the "point" pleats of the "M" and seperated them pulling them down and over so that they met at the next horizontal row down, and the next vertical row over, and sewed them together again.

I repeated that process for 6 rows. I'm not gonna lie. It was kind of a pain. The first panel took me an hour and a half. The second only took about an hour because I had it down to "science" by then.

But I ADORE the results. And the cost was FREE!!! Well, I think the panels probably cost $20 for the pair 7 years ago. But...they were free today!

Now, one thing to keep in mind if you try to tackle a project like this on your own is that you are going to lose the width of the panels by half. So they had to become stationary panels. They look lovely, however, over the Princess' bed with her old sheers under them. Now for some new bedding...and my Papa (a great metal-worker) is fixing up the Princess' headboard (pictured below in her previous bedroom) so that it can actually attach to the footboard...so there will definitely be more photos to come!

Until then....I'm loving my FREE smocked curtains!!

And I have a question for my readers who may be Utah locals...does anyone have a good suggestion for a great fabric store? I don't care where it's located (as long as it's somewhere along the Wasatch Front) I just need a store with a great selection...suggestions would be appreciated.

The chalkboard is finished and on the wall...post to come very soon!!

Have a great weekend~