Out with the Old and in with the New (window treatments)

For over a year now, the windows in our basement family room have been sporting these beauties:

They were kindly left to us by the previous owners, but, well, they just weren't our style.  Y'know?  So I went fabric shopping and a few months later I finally got around to sewing.  It was then that I realized I didn't have enough fabric for all three windows so I had to scrap my original plan.  I ended up settling for one single panel for each window -- just big enough to fit inside the casing.

I wanted an easy way to gather the panel up in the middle so I finally came up with a jute twine loop and a button.  It works perfectly.  We can drop it and let the panel hang down if we want to block out light from that window and when we want to raise it again, it's as easy as placing a loop over a button.  No fussy tying.  No obsessing over the bow.

Please note, these pictures were taken at night and I had to use the dreaded flash.  The paint colour on the walls is not really powder blue!  And yes, I know I still have to remove the brackets from the old curtain rod...

I'm linking up to Saturday Nite Special, Frugalicious Friday, DIY Day, and Just Something I Whipped Up Monday.