When it came to be time to move out, I sprayed the lace down with water and just pulled it away. The lace came away really easily but there was a lot of residue on the window. It took me a few tries to work out how to get it clean but what eventually worked best was a scrubby sponge and VERY HOT water (so hot you need rubber gloves). Vinegar also seemed promising but the hot water worked best.

I thought I’d pop in with the answers to come of the common questions from the comments section.

Q: Just how opaque is it? I am curious how much privacy this actually allows. 

A: I’d say it totally depends on your fabric. If you’d be happy with getting changed behind the fabric as curtains then the fabric will be opaque enough for this window treatment too. I actually have lace curtains in this same fabric, and in both instances I feel happy getting changed behind them if it’s light outside, but I wouldn’t hang out without my clothes on with the light on if it was dark outside. So if privacy is really important, just pick a lace that is more opaque than sheer.

It also depends how directly other people can look into your window! Our bedroom window isn’t super overlooked, although there’s lots of windows out the back, most of the angles are indirect and/or the other window is frosted.

Here’s some pictures (I had to stick my had out of the window to demonstrate as we couldn’t take a pic from outside!) to give you a better idea (remember, a thicker lace would give you more coverage).

This spooky picture is my hand pressed right up against the glass…

And this one is my slightly stubby arm reach out as far as it can, you can just make out my fingers.

Ok! Other questions…

Q: I’m interested in knowing a little more about the mixture. So it’s however much corn starch I want and match it with equal water and then boil the mix

A: You make a paste with equal parts cornstarch/cornflour and hot water and then add extra boiling water. In my case it was two tablespoons cornflour and two tablespoons water to start with and then I mixed in a cup and a half of boiled water from the kettle.

Q:  What about mod podge? Would that work as well?

A: We don’t really have modge podge here so I don’t know! It would be a bit more permanent I imagine. If it’s anything like PVA glue (I think it is) then I wouldn’t want to use it on wooden painted windows like we have, but it could work great on more modern windows. It would also be much more expensive. (The “glue” made out of cornstarch is essentially free!)

Q: If I used colored lace would the cornstarch show?

A: No, it dries totally clear (but goes on gloopy and white-ish, don’t panic!) It will probably go clear overnight.

Q: Can I see a picture from the outside.

A: Sadly this isn’t possibly in our flat, but Michal did this window treatment in her gorgeous over the door window and put up some pictures on her blog. It looks amazing!

Picture from sweetwoodfuffs.blogspot.com

It’s well worth popping by her blog to see how pretty this looks from the inside, too.

If anyone else has any other questions, please feel free to ask away! (Either here or in the original blog post.)

Oh my goodness, this was the quickest, easiest, cheapest project ever but I’m 100 per cent in love with the results. You know those little upgrades that just make your life both better and prettier? This is one of those for our bedroom.

So, privacy. This bedroom has delectable shutters, which I adore, but it makes window treatments kind of hard. You either have to hang curtains in front of the whole alcove (we can tell by the holes in the trim that this is what our predecessors did) or not at all. For the last year and a bit, we’ve opted for the latter option, except for a tension rod light blocking curtain above the shutters.

The shutters are great at blocking all natural light, which is great for lie-ins. But, this room gets crazy beautiful morning light and it always seemed a shame to be getting dressed in artificial light just for privacy.

Anyway, the other day I was browsing the Manhatten Nest blog (looking for something else entirely), when I stumbled on this post of yore about using liquid starch and fabric for privacy in glass windows. Boom!

Obviously, my mind went straight to lace (because my mind always goes straight to lace) and I thought ooh, I gots to try that out one day!

Serendipitously, we headed to Ikea earlier in the week to scope out tea-light lanterns for the wedding. Even more serendipitously, Ikea has JUST started selling lovely scallop edge lace fabric for a mere £1.50 per metre. Boom boom.

Anyway, I got home from work one day and mixed up the starch jelly. I ended up mixing 2 tablespoons cornflour (that’s cornstarch across the pond) with about an equal amount of cold water, then mixing that in about a cup and a half of boiling water from the kettle. I mixed it in a lunch box and the resulting jelly is both spooky and somewhat non-newtonian.

(Random interlude – my first lady boss once told me that some men – ie. our coworker at the time – are like custard powder mix – the more you stir them the more they resist, so keep a light touch. It’s been remarkably useful advice and obviously applies to lots of women too!)

Unlike Daniel, I didn’t soak my fabric in the mix. It just felt like a messy and icky idea so instead I painted a thick layer of gloop on to the window pane.

Then I cut out a rectangle of lace using a template I’d made earlier. I didn’t iron it first but the one piece I had where there was a crease was the hardest to apply so do iron your fabric if it’s creased at all.

Then I applied another thick layer on top, being sure to get it right into all the corners. I tried working top to bottom, centre to corners and a few different ways, but there wasn’t a noticeable difference in ease or result. I did notice that there were sometimes brush marks if I did it too regimented so I ended up going for random patterns of brush strokes.

The best thing about using lace (with holes in) is that there are automatically not air pockets so you don’t have to both squeegeeing them out, which is good because I’m really bad at that sort of thing. The other good thing about lace is it’s very forgiving. On one pane, I ended up with a gap in one place, I just cut a small strip and starch-glued it over the top. I can’t even tell where it was now!

Et voilà! Done. This took less than an hour from start to finish.

Except I’m going to go back and add a row of scallops in the panes just above it. But I figured if I waited to post about it until I’d done that then I’d probably never post about it.

The best thing about this is that to remove it, you just wash it off with warm water, so it’s perfect for renters. My other favourite thing, that doesn’t really show up in pictures, is that it keep the texture of the lace, so it doesn’t look like fake lace contact paper.

I noticed Dan got a lot of comments wondering if this could be done in a hot, humid room like a shower. To that, I’d say it wouldn’t work somewhere that gets directly wet. As for humidity, it probably depends just how humid, but this is so cheap (£1.50 of fabric, probably less than a penny worth of cornflour) and easy to install and uninstall that you should just give it a go and let the internet know how it works out!

I would say it’s probably not great for a window that would get dirty a lot (like above a sink) because you probably can’t wipe it down. If this window gets dingy, I’d probably remove all the sheets and run them through the machine in a lingerie bag. It’s that easy to apply.

Hopefully I’ll get the scallops up soon and will post back about those!

PS. To see the stunning view this is blocking, click here.

UPDATE! I added a few more details and answers to common questions on a new blog post. Read all about it here. 

PPS. Click here to see an update for how I removed it after six or so months.

If this was helpful feel free to buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/itsannabelvita

Do you ever post something just because before you did it / learnt it you couldn’t find it on Google? Well, this post is one of those posts. I love my sewing machine but there is NOTHING out there about it and I wanted to remedy that, in case anyone in the same situation I was two years ago (in a charity shop, googling a review of a sewing machine to see if they should buy it or not!) Sorry that this post will be boring for most of you… I’ve put everything behind a jump to make it easier to skim!

So, without further ado, after the jump you’ll find my review of my New Home 611 sewing machine and pictures of every page of the manual. (One day I’ll photocopy the manual into a PDF, but that day is not today, too lazy.)

Review (using the format from Sew Mama Sew’s sewing machine master list)

What brand and model do you have?
New Home Model 611

How long have you had it?
Two years, but I only started using it in January 2012 (so just over a year ago)

How much does that machine cost (approximately)?
It was £20 in a charity shop, I’ve never seen one for sale anywhere else!

What types of things do you sew (i.e. quilting, clothing, handbags, home dec projects, etc.)?
I’ve sewn clothes, quilts, curtains (for my brother so no pics), cushions, softies and baby clothes on it.

How much do you sew? How much wear and tear does the machine get?
I sew in fits and bursts, but this machine is definitely up to wear and tear!

Do you like/love/hate your machine? Are you ambivalent? Passionate? Does she have a name?
I love it because it’s the one I learnt to sew on. I’ll probably keep it forever, even once I upgrade. It’s very heavy but I like how sturdy it is. When it works it’s great but it does sometime throw a fit and I get angry with it, but normally discover it was user error later (like it needs or new needle or I’ve made a threading error).

What features does your machine have that work well for you?
I love that it’s mechanical and one glance at all the dials tells me exactly how it’s set up. The manual is clear (although the trouble-shooting section is awful) and it just does the job well. It has lots of useful stitches, including an overlocker stitch. You can use a twin needle on it. The free arm is nice and skinny. There’s plenty of space under the throat for quilting (I have quilted a queen size quilt on it). It goes like a tank most of the time.

Is there anything that drives you nuts about your machine?
Because it’s so old I find it hard to buy feet for it online, which is annoying. (Took me two tries to get a generic walking foot for it!) There’s no information about it online. None of these things are the machine’s fault – just the problems of using an older machine and not knowing my way around it perfectly. I’ve noticed this especially since getting my Brother 1034d, which has legions of tutorials dedicated to it!

Do you have a great story to share about your machine (i.e., Found it under the Christmas tree? Dropped it on the kitchen floor? Sewed your fingernail to your zipper?, Got it from your Great Grandma?, etc.!)? We want to hear it!
It’s not a great story, but I bought it in a charity shop beside the sea during a lovely day with my then-boyfriend, now-nearly-husband. I think he was a little skeptical that I’d use it (we lived in a teeny flat at the time so all space was premium) but sewing is now one of the great loves of my life. The first quilt I made on it gave me some much-needed distraction during a trying time in my life, and sewing is still the best therapy I’ve found.

Update October 2013! I made 50 metres of bunting on it for our wedding!

Would you recommend the machine to others? Why?
Yes! It’s simple enough for a beginner to use (I love how all the threading up bits and pieces are on the outside of the machine housing so you can see what’s actually going on) and feels nice and indestructible. When I last had it serviced the staff were very complimentary about it.

Do you have a dream machine?
I do love a mechanical machine and so have my eye on the Bernina 1008, but realistically it’s more likely to be a Janome 525S (also mechanical but about a quarter of the price). I just really like turning dials to get settings rather than programming a computer – and because I’ve never had the needle up / needle down setting I don’t think I’d miss it!

The Manual

Click to view slideshow.

If this was helpful feel free to buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/itsannabelvita

(This is a gallery you can click through like a slideshow, but if you’d like me to email you all the images in one zip file, send me an email! It’s annabel vita at yahoo dot co dot uk. Some pages are pictured twice because I wasn’t sure the whole thing was in focus.)

Here’s two links that might be useful if you own a New Home 611:

New Home 611 service manual and parts list (£12 plus shipping)

New Home 611 parts (it looks like most of these are actually generic, but good to know anyway!)

New Home 611 Manual PDF by email – $10 – but seriously! Don’t get this! Email me and I will photocopy my manual into a nice PDF for you! I just wanted to get this up as quickly as possible so haven’t done it yet but I can!

If you are the owner of a New Home 611 Sewing Machine  – I’d like to make this page as useful as possible for all of us so please comment with any tips or tricks you’ve found (or just to say hello) and come back to visit as I update this page with any new information I come across!

Image from sewmucheasier.com, click the image to go to the full post

Added 7 June 2013: I got a cheapie generic walking foot for my machine, and it works ok but pushed the needle out of centre when you sew. (The post I linked to below has an illustration of this).

I was going to buy a new one BUT, with some google-fu I’ve managed to find the solution to this problem. It’s not elegant but it works.

Update September 2013: I caved and got this cheapie generic walking foot instead, and it works like a dream! It’s only a pittance more expensive than the other one (£13.60!), too.