Designer chiks can either be got made on order from the scores of artisans who reappear in various street corners with the onset of summer or be crafted at home with some basic raw material. The rate for readymade designer chiks is anywhere between Rs 15 and Rs 20 per square feet.

You can either take a pick from the ones embroidered with wool in standard shades of white, red, green or yellow. Else you can select wool colours of your choice and ask the karigars to embroider patterns with these and get the chiks lined with cloth that they stock, usually in hues of dark blue, green , brown and black. They also use double or triple shades of wool on demand. These artisans charge extra if they provide the cloth for the lining, depending on the size of the chik.

Crafting your own chiks can be a creative weekend activity that does not require too much effort. Old bandini dupattas, patola cotton saris, block-printed cotton bed covers or spare curtains can be put to excellent use for the purpose.

First of all, you need to measure your windows and procure plain chiks of that size from the market. Else you can buy a big roll of the chik and cut it into various sizes at home. Now cut out the material that you intend using as lining into pieces that match the size of the chiks. Make sure that the front side of the material is kept facing outwards.

You can either buy a cotton nivaar to serve as the border of the chik or cut your own fabric into 2" to 3" inch-wide strips and sew these together vertically to get a long home-made nivaar. Another option is to get the white nivaar available in the market dyed in the required colour that matches your decor.

Place the cut fabric on each piece of the chik and tack it in at the four corners with a thick needle and thread to hold it in place. Now hem it in at the borders along with the nivaar using a matching thread or wool. You can stitch on matching ribbons or piping in the corners of the chik that have to be hung up on the window frames.

If you want your chik to roll up by just pulling a string, you can get this done from the karigars found in various sector markets. They usually fix white cotton tape on the chik in such a manner that you don’t need to clamber up each time you want to roll it up or down.

If you have no flair for stitching and sewing, have a brush with paints. Simply cut out the chiks into required sizes and use a coloured piping to give them a border. Now use wooden blocks that are used for fabric painting to emboss patterns along the border of the chiks or paint a motif in the centre. Give your imagination a free rein and come up with wacky’n’wild motifs to make a splash of colours on plain chik. The patterns could range from jungle themes with a riot of vegetation to the more delicate floral designs or abstract geometric motifs.

If you don’t have the time for all this or are plain lazy to sew and paint, simply hang chunky bead necklaces or junk jewellery all over the chik pieces to get an unusual window screen. This way you’ll also make good use of things that have been lying around unused and give your chik a look that will instantly click.