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Anti-Gremlin Curtains

So. I bought a house. This is delightful, but it's also pointing out how few home goods I have, like, say, curtains. Luckily the prior owners had installed blinds on a few windows, and left me the large curtains for the front window, but I didn't have anything the right size for the two windows in the kitchen.

This is important not only because the kitchen faces the street and it's nice to make the house at least look presentable, but because sometimes I become a kitchen gremlin who eats mac and cheese straight out of the pot at elevenish at night. And the whole street doesn't need to know that.

One side of a long kitchen, with three dark upper cabinets spaced along a wall and yellow gauze curtained windows between them. There's a two-basin matel sink in a whitish counter under the near window, and a light wood table with paper grocery bags, newspaper, and a can of paint under the far window.
Featuring my messy kitchen table, but at least I did dishes!
Well, at least now the whole street can't see that I'm eating mac and cheese specifically. They can still tell I'm eating something, probably straight out of the pot, at elevenish at night.

A bright yellow, narrow, rectangular gauze curtain with fabric ties at the top, laid flat on tan carpet.
Yup, that's a curtain.
Step One: Find a suitable curtain with dimensions that divide into the sizes of your windows. This one does that, and I only bought one of it for some reason, and I haven't found the color in the store since, so it's the perfect candidate for remaking.

Two white hands pressing a narrow hem into yellow gauze fabric over the photographer's knee.
Look ma, no hands!
I didn't actually cut the curtain into pieces; I tore it. One portion got to keep the original ties, and only needed to be hemmed on the bottom, and the other portion was going to be turned sideways and have ties added, so it needed two new hems. That took longer than expected, but pressing narrow hems into gauze is remarkably easy.

A jumble of narrow, torn strips of yellow gauze fabric, somewhat obscuring the brown table, small silver scissors, white spool of thread, teal-and-white zippered bag, and folded pieces of matching yellow gauze.
That went well.
And there was precisely enough fabric leftover to make six long ties, which I tore down to the right width. If you do that with gauze, you'll get cute little rolled-up strips, which is actually pretty handy when you intend to turn them into fabric ties that won't fray themselves out of existence.

A close-up of a needle with a narrow strip of yellow gauze gathered onto it by running stitches, held delicately in a white left hand over a gathered denim skirt.
And now I want to trim a garment with itty bitty gathered strips.
That also took longer than expected, but the curtains are launderable now, so that's good. My new ambition to make miles of tiny gathered ruffle trim will absolutely take longer than expected. But not just yet. I need to find a less expensive source of fine gauze.

A small loop of narrow yellow fabric ties, draped over a denim-skirted lap, with a rumpled piece of hemmed yellow gauze perched on the right knee.
So close.
And then, ties in hand, I attached them to the new curtain, folded in half to give me twelve ties in pairs. Overall a very simple project, but it certainly brightens up the kitchen when the light streams in.

Now, back to hexagons, and plotting a garden.

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