Preparing for Winter

jcr16

just wondering would the off cut bits be big enough to make some little cushions ?

ktpie

jcr16 wrote: »

just wondering would the off cut bits be big enough to make some little cushions ?

That is what I was thinking of doing with them! From my fairly short curtains the offcuts are plenty to make covers for the little Irma cushions (69p from Ikea). It sounds like I live in Ikea the amount of times I've mentioned it recently! (I almost do, it is less than 5 mins away.)

zarazara

The fleece liners sound like a good idea, but, does anyone have any evidence that they actually work ,please? eg do they have one window in a room fleece lines and another not and is it colder when stood next to the other window with only ordinary lined curtains?

twiglet98

ktpie wrote: »

I hung my fleece lined curtains this morning, I'm really pleased with them. I used the Ikea Polarvide throws, mainly because they were white, the Irma ones are slightly cheaper but blue. My curtains were the hidden tab top types so I couldn't use curtain tape. Instead I sewed buttons along the top of the curtains, just under the tabs. The throws have a fringe and a punched hole design so I cut the fringe off and used the holes as button holes, I put a button every three holes or so. Cut the fleece to length and finished! It must have cost about £17-18 for the curtains, fleeces and buttons so not bad.
Handily the fleeces were just the right width for standard size Ikea curtains, one throw per curtain, also my windows are fairly short so I had to cut a bit off but much longer and you would have to sew two together, not sure how bulky that would end up.

Just got to get DH to fit a curtain track in the sitting room and then I can start on those curtains, job for the weekend!

Oh that's interesting, can you just cut the fleece to fit without hemming it? No sewing machine so it would be a lot to do by hand! I've just been looking on eBay for the Ikea Lusy throws that we had a link to, they're the ones with holes especially designed to use as curtain liners, and couldn't find them although there are plenty of Polarvide throws for sale! Ikea don't do them mail order and we are 50-odd miles from a store, so eBay postage is cheaper than the diesel to get there. DD23's room has thin cream tab-top curtains and I think the white fleece could work well, though she's terribly picky and may insist on 'proper' linings (which she would do without rather than buy herself, but she doesn't pay for the heating and I'm the one wanting the radiators turned down ).

I got a door curtain last week in the local hospice shop, it was labelled 68" wide but it's massive, three widths of fabric, 130 inches laid out flat. It has standard 3" pencil pleat heading so it will pull in, I just have to work out how best to attach the brushed cotton sheet that I planned to make into a liner. The wooden poles are now up, a 4 foot one over the back door and a 5 foot one over the front door, where there's more room to pull it to the side, and my old bedroom curtain is working well on the back, though the cats aren't so sure. Will have another go at the weekend when I can do it in daylight. Wish I could use the computer by candlelight and not need the lights on all evening!

ktpie

twiglet98 wrote: »

Oh that's interesting, can you just cut the fleece to fit without hemming it? No sewing machine so it would be a lot to do by hand!

I didn't do any hemming of the fleece, the blankets themselves aren't hemmed and I don't think it would fray very easily. Made it a lot easier than using standard linings. Check the dimensions of the fleece and the curtains as the fleeces aren't huge, I was lucky in that they just fit. The Polarvides are 130x170cm (51x67").

ktpie

zarazara wrote: »

The fleece liners sound like a good idea, but, does anyone have any evidence that they actually work ,please? eg do they have one window in a room fleece lines and another not and is it colder when stood next to the other window with only ordinary lined curtains?

I decided to try it as I thought it might be cheaper than buying proper lining material. I think it was, unless you can get really cheap lining material! Dunelms is £2.99/m, which is probably where I would have gone as it's handy for me, so the fleeces worked out cheaper for me.
With no knowledge of thermal properties of materials and just going by how warm my legs got when I was sewing the buttons on the fleeces I would imagine it would keep more heat in, but I haven't done a proper test.

jcr16

last night i went to my firends well loads of us did. anyway she has a log burner and although it wasn't lit i was sat by it. and wow the smell. of burnt wood was divine. it made me start feeling very wintery and snuggley. it is amazing how a simple smell can make you remember so many thing's.

as for lining material. i know it was 7 years ago. but isearched online for lining material and i found it for £1 a meter, free delivery and it was about 120 inches wide. it was massive. so might be worth a try searching online if you decide thats the route you want to go down.

[Deleted User]

jcr16 wrote: »

just wondering would the off cut bits be big enough to make some little cushions ?

I had some strips of fleece left over that weren't big enough to make anythng from......until I saw someone wearing a fleecy headband like you can buy for ski-ing.

Keeps my ears lovely and warm!

twiglet98

ktpie wrote: »

I didn't do any hemming of the fleece, the blankets themselves aren't hemmed and I don't think it would fray very easily. Made it a lot easier than using standard linings. Check the dimensions of the fleece and the curtains as the fleeces aren't huge, I was lucky in that they just fit. The Polarvides are 130x170cm (51x67").

Thanks ktpie, DD's curtains are 90"W x 54" deep.

Guess what :j she LIKES this idea, probably because I didn't try to claim it was MY idea!

blueberrypie

twiglet98 wrote: »

Oh that's interesting, can you just cut the fleece to fit without hemming it? No sewing machine so it would be a lot to do by hand!

Fleece doesn't fray, so there's no need to hem it :-)