Week 22: Custom window coverings

I've gotten so much closer to finishing my car window coverings!

This project began a few months ago with a $50 trip to JoAnn Fabrics, 7 yards of cloth, and 3 yards of filling. I felt very intimidated by this, my largest sewing project.

Having thoroughly blacked-out windows while sleeping in my car is extremely important to me. This will keep me safe from wandering eyes, and give me a sense of security and privacy on the road.

Now, most generic car window coverings cover about 3/4 of your windows and don't have enough pieces to cover every one. This might work if you're just trying to block sunlight or prevent thieves from window shopping, but not for my purposes.

My Prius has nine windows, all varying in size, and a custom window covering set would cost me around $200. Enter, sewing machine.

I started by climbing awkwardly into my car to measure each window with my pink, flexible measuring tape. I first assembled the smaller cut-out pieces and absolutely butchered their stitches, but I quickly got the hang of the process.

An obstacle I hadn't anticipated, was the thread spool I bought was too thick around to fit on my machine. And so I had to tape a cuticle dowel to the existing spool pin, in order to use the thread I bought. Unfortunately this modification did not spin the thread smoothly, and made the process more difficult than necessary.

That first night I worked all hours, finishing the cut-outs, lower rear windshield, and rear side windows.

I didn't touch this project again until yesterday.

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Last night, the uncut fabric in my closet guilted me into working on the front side windows and back windshield at midnight.

In the morning, I took those pieces to the sewing machine, and later went back to the store for supplies to finish the front windshield ($30).

The fabric I bought was only 40" in width, and my car's front windshield is 50" wide, so this meant I needed 100 more inches (3 yards) of fabric to completely cover the area.

This time around, I accidently bought too thin of quilt filling, and ended up using left-over fabric glue to form the scraps into a second layer.

And then, I realized I had been threading the machine wrong for two hours.

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Now the task is attaching these coverings to my car windows at will. My mind immediately went to magnets, but my car's interior is mostly plastic. So that wouldn't work.

Then I thought of velcro. But if I use that on my side windows, they would stick when I roll them down.

So, I've decided to attached velcro onto each piece, except the four side windows. I have a few ideas of how to secure those, but only time will tell.

In the end, this project cost me around $80 and tens of hours. Despite all of this, I still don't regret the hundreds I saved by not buying a custom window covering set outright.

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Also, I have news!

A good friend of mine, Tatiana, hosts a travel platform on social media that includes a podcast. She speaks all about her experiences in travel and invites guests to share their stories as well.

Last week, Tat asked me to be a guest, and I accepted!

She'll be releasing the episode "Car Camping in a Prius" on her "Life's a Voyage" podcast Monday, January 24.

I hope ya'll tune in and support Tatiana on her podcast.

xxoo Ten