W is for Window Covering

I had something really cool but really complicated lined up for "W". Really, I did! I bought the materials several weeks before the A to Z Challenge even began, but I have lost the will to do anything difficult.

As if by divine intervention, an alternate solution threw itself at me. After the preschoolers left at noon yesterday, the staff got together to set up for the upcoming Mother's Day programs. We were decorating tables and hanging scene setters on the wall and putting up the risers when my boss gave me and one of my co-workers three plastic tablecloths and said, "Here, make this":

Teensy problem. No link, no directions, just a picture. 

We had the three tablecloths stacked on top of each other and spread out on the floor. I got scissors and a stapler and a yardstick, and we set to work.

We stapled the top together so the plastic tablecloths wouldn't slip (they still did).

We measured two inch intervals and made little snips along the bottom.

Then took a deep breath and started cutting (seriously, who wants to mess up the boss's project?!). I made Mindy make the first cut up the middle, then we cut strips by eyeballing the width. Not going to lie, Mindy was much better at cutting her strips than I was.

And we didn't cut the rug ONCE.

When they were all cut, we taped it to the wall so it would cover a window behind the risers. Kudos to both me and Mindy for not falling off the risers, as they had not been locked into place and kept tipping backwards.

Each strip was made of three layers of tablecloth. We braided each strip about six inches. Know what happens when you braid really long strips of plastic tablecloth? The bottom part of the strips braid themselves together as well. Isn't that fun? After we braided the top part, we unbraided the bottom part.

I nixed the idea of knotting each braid as shown in the picture, as I had a bad feeling about trying to get all of those knots to line up in a nice row like in the picture. We just let them dangle casually instead, and I stand by that decision as being the smartest thing we did with the whole project.

See Mindy. See Mindy braid.
Good job, Mindy!

We hung some embellishments on it and made it cute. And we covered the window with yellow paper to diffuse the light.

And done! 

Of course, this was a Pinterest WIN, and not just because my boss is the one who found the pin and thought it would be GREAT as a backdrop....