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What can you do with all those old neckties?

January 18, 2010 by respaced

My husband was going through all of his old neckties, and he asked me if I wanted them. My first impulse was NO. After all, some dated from the early ’90s and were quite garish. Then the wheels started turning, and I told him to give me two days. If I hadn’t thought of a project in that amount of time, the neckties were gone.

This is what I came up with. It’s a curtain for our back door, the only place where such a curtain would not clash with the other decor.

I have to say it was a bit more challenging than I anticipated. I laid them all out, making sure they were straight (that was the hard part), taped them to the floor, and stitched the sides together. In one section I had to splice in a tie to cover a couple of gaps. I folded the edges of the tops under and stitched those.

Then here’s my special trick: Instead of making loops or a sleeve to slide through the curtain rod, I simply hung the curtain with eight neodymium magnets. These are incredibly strong, inexpensive magnets that are about one-quarter inch square. Buy them at KJ Magnetics.

To fold the curtain up, I simply used more magnets. You could make loops if you didn’t want to use magnets — I was just getting tired of doing all that tedious hand sewing.

Now you have a unique, yet functional light-blocking curtain that cost you less than $5 to make. Fantastic!
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Filed Under: redesign and upcycling

Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    January 20, 2010 at 1:57 am

    The tie curtain turned out great. Makes me wish my husband had ties. I enjoy your blog. Kathy, Coquille

  2. Anonymous says

    January 26, 2010 at 4:01 pm

    I just threw out some real garish ties from the 70's. For awhile they were a big floppy mess that slightly entertained the baby and annoyed the cats. This would have been a great idea for me to use. Next time I collect horrible, multi-generational ties I will know what to do with them. Thanks Kristy

Trackbacks

  1. A year ago in review: How to hate cooking a tiny bit less, drink beer to get more organized, what to do with old neckties says:
    January 19, 2012 at 5:55 pm

    […] What can you do with all of those old neckties? You could make them into a toddler leash. You could tie them together and escape out the window. Or you could make this. […]

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Serving clients in Portland, Beaverton, Lake Oswego, Milwaukie and surrounding areas. Contact reSPACEd at 971-226-6055 or at info@respacedpdx.com

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