I’ve wanted to make some curtains for windows in my apartment out of some vintage Indian saris I’ve been stockpiling for a long time. I liked the look and idea of a window scarf or scarf valance but needed to be able to hang a window scarf / valance without a curtain rod or wall sconces since I am not allowed to hang rods over my windows or drill holes in the walls of my apartment.

I decided to try to hang the saris by clipping metal drapery rings onto two inch nails and looping the saris through the holes in the rings.

I started on the window in the bedroom first.

First, I measured the window and divided the length by four. Then I marked out the measurements on the wall with a pencil.

I nailed the nails into the wall where I marked, leaving half and inch of nail hanging out for the drapery rings to clamp onto.

Then I hung the other four.

Then I turned my attention to the saris. I chose to hang two together that had interesting patterns, because I like the whole clashing patterns thing.

I like the red one on the left because it has some weird encoded bacteriophage full of backwards and forwards numbers.

I took the red one and folded it till it would fit into the drapery ring. Then I threaded the sari through the drapery rings.

To do this, the rings are perpendicular to the wall.

I pulled it through all the rings.

I folded up the yellow sari and started threading it underneath the red one.

I adjusted the draping every time I pulled it through another ring.

Once I finished the draping, they were done.

All told, it took maybe two hours.

I also did this to a window in my living room using two other vintage saris. There are some photos of it below.

The saris look awesome, and I hung them with minimal hardware and window changes.