Flirting with Curtains

It's curtains for you!  

So I was shopping at Meijer today (Meijer is kind of like the Walmart of Michigan, even though we have Walmart here, too...), and I somehow found myself in the curtain aisle... and I think I'm in trouble.  :p  See, ever since I became aware of the 18th Century Curtain-Along using the Indienne print curtains available at Lowe's, I've been looking at curtains in a whole new light...

Not that I haven't used old curtains for costumes in the past:

The underskirt of my blue Renaissance gown was once a curtain.

But before this, I had never actually considered purchasing curtains for the express purpose of cutting them up and making them into dresses.  I see the brilliance of it now, though.  Buying finished curtains, especially on sale, seems to be much more cost-effective than buying home decor fabric and making them (or historical gowns) yourself.  It seems counter-intuitive, but there it is.

Of course, the curtains I found at Meijer are probably not as high quality as the ones at Lowe's.  All of the ones I saw were 100% polyester, instead of cotton.  So it all depends on how historically accurate you want to be with your fiber content.

I found two styles that were on clearance, and I almost bought them - but I'm currently trying to purge my stash of fabric that I'll never use, not add to it.  I did take a couple pics on my phone, though.

This was a beautiful solid deep red - and what a price!  ($2.78/yard)

The color looks terrible on my phone, but it was a dark gold with leafy vine embroidery.  ($4.72/yard)

Each panel would be enough to make a petticoat, and then I would just need a red and gold striped or floral gown or jacket to coordinate with them.  I did have this curtain picked out at Lowe's, and I was hoping to catch it when it was on sale for 70% off, so I could afford to buy enough to make a full gown and matching petticoat.  Oh well.  Perhaps it wasn't meant to be.

My final find was a 5-piece curtain set, in a gorgeous red and gold plaid:

The photo does not do it justice.

I immediately wanted to make it into a Civil War era plaid gown.  Wouldn't that be gorgeous?  Something like this:

Who doesn't see plaid like this and think of hoop skirts?  

I already have a pattern for one!  And if my math is right, it would take two of these 5-piece curtain sets to make one 1860s gown.  That would give you 9 1/3 yards total, 60" wide.  Two curtain packs would be $36 (including tax), so that works out to $3.86/yard!  And that's not even including the valances, which could give some extra wiggle room.  All I would need is a hoop skirt...

But this is all just a dream for now.  I'm still not allowing myself to buy any fabric for a new project until I've completed an old project.  Guess I need to do more sewing!