Laura K

This is a little old, but I'll add my 2c. I use the clips in the 2nd photo to hang a full-size (maybe slightly smaller) quilt over my front doors. The regular curtains have back tabs, and I added the rings in between the tabs. I leave the rings on the rod permanently, so I don't have to worry about removing the regular curtains when I want to add the quilt in the winter. They work great.

Pearl Sutton wrote:The blankets I use for window covering are held up by the pinch type clips like this:

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or by metal loops that I put safety pins in the blanket to hold them up.
The metal rings make the blankets slide very easily, and lets me control the bunching better.  I gave up on using tabs due to inability to slide them.

There are modern clip types, like this:

(source)

They tend to be wussy though, and not hold weight well. If it's light curtain I might use them, but not a heavy one, unless I use a LOT of them.

I'm a thrift store shopper, and buy curtain rings of types I like whenever I see them, so when I need them I have a good selection of them. I don't like most of the modern ones.
And I don't like tabs because I can't slide them.

I have been thinking about these for what feels like forever but never got around to building them anywhere that I lived. Then my parents moved to Maine, and one time I was visiting them and saw them in their windows! I don't know if they came with the house (not the kind of thing my dad would build, but maybe...), but it was cool to see them being used "in the wild"!

Other than being a little delicate, I love that you can still see out the windows. My head continue to swirl with modifications (usually more complicated and more expensive, but maybe not much) -- solid plastic or plexiglas panels, one that I would like to hinge so that I can still open one of the two windows it would cover......

They are the perfect Kreg jig project!

Anna Demb wrote:Here's a little more about DIY window inserts/interior storm windows. We made some for our 1893 Maine house back in 2010, and they are only now needing some new film and weatherstripping. The cost was about $6 a window. At that time, we also insulated the attic and basement, but the window inserts felt like the biggest improvement in comfort, keeping out drafts and chill while allowing the sun in and our view out. What a great investment! With the 2 layers of film, together with the window glass, we get 3 layers with 2 air pockets, like the expensive windows used in passive houses.

You can just push them in and pull them out, so they are easy to change out in fall and spring, or when you need some fresh air in the winter.

Also, they're easy and fun to make if you have a drill and/or screwdriver, a handsaw, a square, and a hair dryer.

Here's a link to directions on how to make them from the man who, it seems, invented them:
http://www.midcoastgreencollaborative.org/Documents/storm_pamphlet.pdf