A Little Vanity Project

Our new apartment has a master bedroom, but we chose the other bedroom because we are such generous hosts the layout works better for our furniture and the master’s bathroom is teeny tiny. We figured it made more sense for us to use the larger bathroom instead of squeezing into the smaller one, which would leave no one in a good mood before the coffee was poured.

The shower curtain from my last apartment was too short, so we moved it to the now-guest bathroom.  We picked this curtain up from Wally World because it’s fun, but not super-girly and still matched our towels.



The bathroom is long and narrow with a long counter, which works well for us during the madness of getting ready on weekdays. While the space is great, the counter also had a cut-out for a vanity stool.  And, let’s be honest, I’m never going to be doing any sort of make-up routine that requires me to sit down.



This gapping hole is also the view you have from the hallway. I had the idea of making a curtain to cover the space, so we could use it as storage.  But since I don’t even know how to sew on a button I knew it would have to be a very easy project.

Luckily, the Taj Mahal of fabric stores, Mary Jo’s, is four miles from my office, so I stopped by one day to scope it out and strategize.  After getting lost for a few hours, my honing senses led me to the sale section, where I found a great piece of fabric marked down to $6.99 a yard.  After picking up some hemming tape and a tension rod, I was set.  Or so I thought.



I thought the fabric was a fun variation on the shower curtain. I also think it’s upholstery fabric, which I thought would be nice for the thickness and body, but it really meant that the hem tape I bought didn’t work a darn.  It seriously didn’t begin to melt or bond even when I left the iron on it for like a minute.
I also thought hem tape was the thickness of Velcro, hence the three rolls when about 20% of one roll would have worked. Remember, can’t sew a button… I have a lot of learn.

So, the Stick Witchery was out and I picked up a single roll {see, I’m learning} of Heat N Bond Ultrahold, which actually worked!


Did you hear the angels singing just then?  I measured the fabric and got to ironing.  A short while later, I strung up my very first curtain.



But I’m going to let you in on a little secret, it looks seriously wonky from the back. Yet, more than two weeks later, it’s still holding strong.

Overall, I think this was a great $13 solution because it’s much more fun to look at and gives us more storage room.

I would like to attempt some more projects, so I’ve been looking at getting a sewing machine. Amazon offers some nice models for decent prices. So we’ll see what the Paycheck Gods or Santa Clause have in store.