Buster gets Window Treatments!

For those of you who have been following me for awhile, you know that my husband and I purchased a 2001 deisel shuttle bus (which we named Buster) last year to convert into a camper with space to haul art and booth set up to art shows. We have actually traveled to a couple of shows in it as just a big, empty box, so now we are really looking forward to having some more finished features this show season…like a bed, bathroom, couch…. and window coverings for privacy!

One of those features will be window treatments for all of those windows! Four of them, plus two tiny windows in the back have been painted black because they are behind the bathroom, closets, etc. That leaves six big windows, plus the window on the back door that needed some kind of covering.

After shopping for fabric a bit and either not really caring for it, or being shocked by the price, I decided this would be a good DIY project. It is, after all, an art bus!

Since these window coverings need to provide not only privacy, but also be insulating, I started with a big roll of reflective insulation that I cut into the right shape for the windows. On the outside is black fabric, which will just look like window tinting from the outside, just like our painted windows. But on the inside will be my indigo shibori project! 

Shibori involves folding or stitching (or using rubber bands!) fabric to create dye patterns much like using tie dye! I used a different pattern for each of the 7 window panels that I made.

I layered my dyed fabric with the reflective insulation, and black fabric, then bound it all with extra wide, double fold, black bias tape.

These simply stuff into the window frames for when we want some privacy at night. By day they are easy to take down and stow away for the big, unobstructed views we love!

This is the temporary kitchen side. We have made lots of progress on Buster, but it will be a work in progress for quite awhile, and we haven’t even begun on the kitchen yet! Art show season will be starting soon and we will be using it much more than converting it for the near future. But it has come a long way from the empty box we camped in last August!