voila! our new Shower Curtain.

Y'all are making me blush over on Flickr.  Didn't know you'd like it so much!  Well, yes, I did make this.  And high time too.  Our solid white cloth shower curtain is totally, glaringly stained.  In fact that stain was about ALL I'd see in that room, you know?  I blame it on all the red clay dirt in the south.  And, it's not like we roll in it. 



Er, um.

So, yes, I made us a new shower curtain.  This time not white - natural linen.  I'm hoping it'll stand up better to all the dirt we'll throw its way.  This is the same linen I used for the Colorbrick Quilt-Along.  It's from Fabric-Store.com, and I just adore this particular shade of "natural".  Plus, it comes 59" wide, which comes in handy for projects like this.

Since our bathroom is modestly-sized (like the rest of our home), I kept it pretty simple.  

Tutorial, you say? Well, here are some quick tips: 

















First I pieced the tiny patchwork.  They finish as 1" squares, but they don't start that way.  I cut 1" strips and then pieced them in several sets of six rows.  Next I cut them up to mix and match.  I used 4 solids and 6 tonal prints.  Once pieced as wide as my previous curtain, I added a full, wide piece of linen to the bottom and a smaller strip of linen to the top.  To protect the tiny patchwork seam allowances from fraying in the wash, I added a strip of linen (cut with pinked edges) over the back of the patchwork.  Hemmed the sides at 1.5" each, the bottom at 2" and the top at 2.5".  To finish it off, I made buttonholes (thank-you, sewing machine!) evenly spaced for the shower curtain rings.  My rings have that big ball so that you don't even see the buttonholes! 

So, let me know if you have any questions, K?  And thanks for your kind words.  I hope my husband likes it when he comes home!  His initial comments have been "oh, I thought you were going to make the patchwork strip wider..."  Yes, Hun, piecing 1-inch squares is not at all tedious.  Wink.