Living this frugal life, I look at everything that comes into the house a little differently. If it’s general waste, I wonder how I can recycle it or if it could be used for something else. If it’s a piece of vintage linen, I ask myself “do I need it or could it be used in another way”. This was the case recently when I was going through still more photos from my Nanna. It was customary to send an official photo of your children to your brother’s and sister’s back in the 1930’s and 1940’s and my Nanna had hundreds of them.

They were all wrapped in a badly yellowed, but still beautiful, vintage tablecloth. As soon as I looked at it I knew it would be perfect for a bathroom curtain because it would fit in perfectly with the theme we were going with.

We were in the process of giving our bathroom a quick makeover and we’d managed for so long without a curtain, I was reluctant to make one. Even though the glass is frosted, if the window is open, you can still see everything. This tablecloth was the perfect size for the window. The length only needed to be cut and I thought I’d make a tieback while I was at it. The tablecloth was stained from age so I’ve given it a couple good soaks in laundry soaker but I think it could probably do with another one.

The non selveged edges were quite frayed so I trimmed them and finished off the edges on the sewing machine.

I pick up nearly all my sewing notions and craft supplies from the thrift store. I find this curtain tape there all the time and it’s never anymore than $2. I sewed it on the top and used shower curtain hooks that were spare from the swimming bags I made for the kids from the shower curtain.

The tieback was easy too. Just straight sewing. Because the fabric is quite thick I didn’t really need to stiffen it but did anyway.

Cut out a piece of interfacing the same size as the tieback piece of fabric. Sew wrong sides together.

Trim the edge and corners and pull through to the right side.

For the loops cut a piece of matching fabric about 1.5cm (1″) wide. Sew the long edge and pull through with a safety pin.

Pin the loop in place at the end of the tieback and sew.

A relatively easy, straight forward sewing job and the curtain has fit in really well with our Greek themed bathroom decor. The full details of the budget bathroom makeover are to come when my husband has finished off doing what he has to do soon so stay tuned.

I have quite the collection of vintage tablecloths and have always been so reluctant to cut them up but I really loved the way this curtain turned out. At least it’s being put to good use unlike the other *cough cough* number of tablecloths I have stored in the linen closet.