of a Work in Progress - Braided Doorway Curtain

Yesterday, I got cracking on the next stage of a certain ongoing work-in-progress that I refer to as the door-hanger-thingy. Once I decided that I was going to blog about this project, I thought I'd better come up with a better name for it, preferably one that actually described what it was. I thought about it for a bit and decided that my creation was a Braided Doorway Curtain. Only it didn't really stick. I'm still calling it the door-hanger-thingy.

It's an odd fact about my main living area that is technically has no windows. It does, however, have three external doors that can be opened and closed. Each one was once a wall of a telephone box. Oh yes, how cool is that. Add to this the consideration that our backyard is a communal space and really, anybody could be wandering about out there, and the issue of curtains comes to the fore. I've tried many variations since I've been living here - but over time it occurred to me that what I really wanted was a bead curtain. Only, I've never happened to notice many bead curtains for sale in op shops. Perhaps I could make my own... I don't have many beads but I do have big piles of fabric... eventually I came up with this concept.

So, what I've got here so far is one queen size flat sheet and one Balinese sarong, split into strips that are braided, and then all sewn together, folded first to be the right width for the doorway. It's my intention to keep adding to it until the spaces are mostly filled in, like the bead curtain I had imagined. I added buttons to the ends of the longer braids. These are genuine Nana buttons, from the collection of odd buttons that my nana had ended up with after all these years of sewing and making things.

I'd decided that the next step would be to give this treatment to a lovely queen sized doona cover that has had a lot of love and is starting to pill unpleasantly, due, I believe, to the polyester content. Yesterday was just the day for such a project.

I've been a bit flat for a few days, tired and sleepy. Not unhappy as such, but not much motivation and a niggling, low-level background of depression and negativity. I had to find something to focus on that wasn't too taxing but had the meditative immersion qualities I needed to keep myself from wandering into negative thoughts. The doona cover / hangy-thingy-in-waiting saw its window of opportunity.

So, here's what I do. I hang the fabric up because I find it a lot easier to work on it like that. I tear the fabric in to strips, stopping a couple of inches before the top end, so I end up with a strong, intact border to hang it from. Like so.

I discovered that the damask side of the doona cover wouldn't tear, because of the weaving technique. So I just cut those strips all the way with scissors.

Then I plait three strips together and secure the tail with a few stitches.

I cut and tore and plaited and stitched. When I felt tired I stopped and had a rest. And then if I found myself wandering aimlessly around the house, or around my mind, without a positive focus, then I would go back to the hanging fabric and continue. And so I got through the day.

And eventually, I'll get a fabulous door-hanger-thingy. Bonus!