Baby room design: curtains

As mentioned in my previous entry I was determined to have some handmade elements in our baby's bedroom.  I initially thought that I would make the curtains from a fabric that I found in a fabric shop but after taking many trips to different fabric stores I came to the conclusion that most curtaining fabrics were either very, very plain but embossed with ugly patterning or they were way too colourful with quite ordinary prints on them.  As I mentioned in my previous entry, I wanted the room to have a calming effect but also spark my little one's imagination as well.  I ended up purchasing some plain mushroom coloured curtaining fabric with big plans to make it suitable for a room for my new bub.

This project was a slow one. I took a long time coming up with my plan of exactly what I wanted on the curtains and then I had get into the problem solving aspect of how I was actually going to make my plan work.

My decision: I was going to create a scene of what my baby was going to see when we went on our daily walks outside.  We live in a pretty spectacular valley that is 10 minutes drive to the beach if you turn right and ten minutes drive to a rainforest national park if you turn left.  I decided however, that Mini's curtains would show the animals that live right outside his window on the hill and in the creek.  

I made felt or fabric animals that I then sewed directly onto the curtains or onto the background scene.  I also created a tree for some of the animals to live in.  Many of the shapes for the animals that I made were inspired by the Dick Bruna books. 

Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo

Red Tailed Black Cockatoo

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo

I included a few of the animals that live on and in the creeks and swales

turtles

ducks

swamp hens

fish

We couldn't have a scene from outside the window without the ...

magpies

kangaroos  

koalas (we've been lucky enough to have one by the creek)

Mini is now over six months and I often find him looking at his curtains when he wakes from a sleep.  He loves the quacky ducks outside and has started reaching for them on his curtains.  He also loves the cockatoos and uses his bird sign to show me that he wants to touch them.  

I am happy with how the curtains turned out.  They were a labour of love and I was lucky that I had nine months to complete them.  Mini finds them interesting but they are not to bright and in your face for a room that needs to promote sleep.  It's fabulous to be able to talk to him about the animals on his curtains and then meet them in real life when we walk out the door.