Drop Cloth Drapes

Every time it's sunny here in Washington (which actually isn't that often), the setting sun blasts us in the face through our sliding door as the five of us sit in our kitchen eating dinner. 

Don't get me wrong, I love when the sun is shining and we get beautiful sunsets, 

but we don't much appreciate the glare in our faces as we are trying to enjoy our dinner together. 

We really needed some kind of window treatment on our sliding door 

so that we could see each other while we ate dinner, 

but drapes can be quite costly, especially when you need extra tall ones! 

And with three wee ones running around, yanking on everything, 

I didn't want to put up anything that was too expensive and risk them ruining it.

I had read about people using painter's drop cloths as drapes, so I decided to give it a go. 

I mean, you can't beat a drape panel for $9.99! 

I went to Lowe's and picked up two canvas drop cloths that measured 6 feet wide by 9 feet tall. 

That is a killer price for drapes that long!

 Only the long edges were hemmed, so I put my new  sewing skills into practice and hemmed the two short ends. 

If you are going to attempt this, make sure you use a heavy duty needle on your sewing machine. 

I learned this the hard way after breaking 5 needles!

 I used some drape clips (also from Lowe's) so that the drapes can easily be taken down for cleaning.

 

If you clip the drape clips about an inch down on the back of the panel, it gives the drapes a  pleated look on the top.

Our drapes have a decorative hem line about 2/3 of the way down.

No, I didn't add that on myself. They actually came that way!

 

I love the texture and the flecks of brown and tan in them.

But I especially love the price!

Total cost of the project including the rod and the drape clips = $50.00