No worries. It happens. It's not a bad thing. Hardly.
In fact, it's a good thing (for me anyway) as I get to have a learn and redo. Granted, if I spent a sh*t ton of money on something only to find it doesn't pan out, welllllll, that's rougher. And clearly not so easily changed.
But if it's a small thing or was inexpensive or merely a paint color, no big whoop.
And so it was with the felt curtain that's hanging in the laundry room.
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Yep. Felt curtain. |
Problem was, every time I was in the exasperating laundry room, the felt curtain would catch my eye. And not in a good way.
Ultimately it hangs funny, all dopey kitty whomps and goofy so it looks...well....like poop. Sad sad messy floppy poop.
Sigh. Ah well. Too bad. So be it. Such is life and design. Shrug.
So it had to go. No fear, I'll reuse the felt for something else surely; I have a screwy felt fixation.
But I need something to replace it as uh, a'-no way am I gonna peer into that creepy utility closet every time I'm in the laundry room. No siree. And the door ain't going back on. Nope.
Plus maybe this'll be my dip over the edge into some actionable steps to improve that wee room rather than maniacally pondering it and getting frustrated and bitter and mad and stomping off.
A while back I stumbled across a woman's creations online whom I am unable to relocate who does these large boho dip dyed wall hangings. Super sharp. Though, should you type "dyed wall hanging" into a search engine, golly, be prepared. It's hardly an original concept. Did I get the whom and who right?
Still, I thought mmmm maybe turn a wall hanging into a curtain and that'll be a good replacement for the felt as the strings will hang straight. And maybe too it'll be a snazzy inspiration for the rest of that goodness-ly terribly laid out room that makes me batsh*t crazy with its ceaseless inefficiency.
Regardless, you just can't beat the 70's outta me, sorry 'boutcha. Besides, macrame is cool again. So there.
So I thought ok, reuse the cafe rod or tension rod* or whatever name it has and get some string.
All right then, what's not terribly wallet damaging? Mmm, how's about cotton clothesline? Yeah, that'll work.
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Ah yes. Clothesline. |
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Since my workbench table is five feet wide, I measured 21.5" from one end and made a mark. Stretch the line across the full length then to the pencil line, and voila, 81.5" each and every time. Well, double it, as I needed two lengths per string. Sweet! |
So much for creating thriftier.
But, thankfully the clothesline at Menards is not horrifyingly priced at four bucks per hundred feet. Still, I was not anticipating spending thirty six bucks on clothesline. Boo. Big boo.
Alas, I started the project and wanted to see it through, so back to the store for a boatload of clothesline. Ahhhh rats. Heh.
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Montage de festón, aka larks head knot. I totally don't speak French, fyi. |
The tension rod was at about twenty nine inches wide. One package made it about three and a quarter inches across the length of the rod, so that meant a total of nine packages. Wow. Sigh.
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To get the line of line across the front, the bunny ear starts in front. |
All right, packages in hand, it was go time.
Not really a thrilling nor exciting process to be honest, getting nine hundred feet of clothesline cut and knotted onto a tension rod so I accomplished the task in spurts of time over several days. Package here, two there, and whew, finally all knotted.
Surely at some point Mike wandered through and thought "jeez, what.the.hell is she making now? smdh, Cuckoo."
Next I hung it in the doorway to let the line relax a bit and ya know, get an idea of how the finished product will turn out.
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Relaaaax. It's ok. Stretch out. |
Ok ok ok, math schmath, time to move on. Next up, dyeing.
Dyeing things is a skill, near a fine art if you ask me. I first encountered dyeing things in college with my pal Marcy who was studying costume design. She showed me how to use their uber fancy giant dye vat and that was damn cool.
But, so, you're at the mercy of the relationship between the item being dyed, the dye,* water, and time. It is what it becomes or you try again. Control over the situation is, well, minimal. Unless you're an expert which I am not. Nor does one need to be to do this project.
I didn't do this whole dye process by book either; I've dyed enough things since college to know how much I can get away with instruction-wise so stick with me and you'll be fine.
First: set up. Rubber gloves,* the leftover dye from my wall hanging adventures which I never went back to as bleech they weren't panning out, a trash bin with a clean bag, and yeah, I think that's it.
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Hey, dye! Uh, nice with the butt there, wow Dylon. |
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I used a light sprinkle of the denim here as I wanted to create a gradation of light to dark. |
Into the bath went more dye to darken things up, sprinkle sprinkle, mix mix, and grasping the previously dyed section and the bottom, the middle portion went for a swim next.
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Thump, into the garbage can to drip. The second dip consisted of more denim plus navy. |
A few hours pass and I went to check on the drying dye and ah dammit man, I'm disappointed. Jeez louise, I'm so frustrated lately, nothing seems to go right, grrrr, heh.
The colors look lighter of course no surprise there, but the surprising part is they look washed out and not vibrant. Raaaaaats. Plus the brown in lieu of black didn't accomplish much at all but, not such a surprise. More of a fingers crossed hope really. Hm.
So I wait for it to dry near completely before hauling it in, rehanging and reevaluating in situ as the best determination for my next steps.
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What's wack-a-doo here is that the camera picked up the subtlety of the colors better than my eye. Bad boob light lighting. I bet too the off-white of the clothesline contributed to the wishy-washiness of the hues. Hmph. |
Aquamarine was on sale (nice!) and black (of course, of course) made it into my cart as well.
Set with the new colors, it was back to the same dying process. Dip, change color, dip, change color, dip, dash outdoors.
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So it went partial bottle aquamarine part 1, the remaining denim with some navy part 2, a huge glug of black into the mix last. |
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Pretty cool, yeah? Spiffier than a floppy felt curtain anyway. |
But it works and I like it!
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Super cool and fun, right? |
*The cafe/tension rod, cotton clothesline, fabric dye, and rubber glubs are Amazon affiliate links. Mwah, thanks! Please see the "boring stuff" tab for more info.
Nice to meet someone who's mathematical abilities are worse than mine, lol! Cool "curtain".....kinda looks like a tie dyed grass skirt!
ReplyDeleteHey, I do what I can to help others! Thank you very much!
DeleteI love the finished curtain. Your writing style makes an interesting read too!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! And thank you so much!
DeleteLove this idea!
ReplyDeleteThank you very much!
DeleteI really like the finished results; gave me an idea for 'hiding' the water heater in MY very small laundry room... Thanks! (0=
ReplyDeleteOh excellent! I hope it works out for you! Thanks so much!
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