This project came out of a real necessity... That is the necessity to be able to open a tilting window to get some cross ventilation in, without letting in hoards of voracious mosquitos. Because this window tilts, rather than sliding up and down, a regular window screen wouldn't work.

The solution - the all mighty duct tape, a few thumb tacks, a bit of screen and a bit of ingenuity.

Here's how I did it:

Tools:
• Scissors
• Measuring tape
• Straight edge (or metal ruler)
• Pliers

Materials:
• Duct tape
• Thumb tacks
• Screen

Step 1: Diagram

The first step in this process was figuring out how to add a screen to a window that tilts. My solution was to make two screens - one for the top half and one for the bottom half, and attach one piece on the inside and one on the outside.

Above is a diagram my father-in-law made to better visualize this process. (Obrigado Moacyr!;-)

Step 2: Cut Screen

Of course before you do any cutting, measure, and then measure again, (then hopefully you'll only have to cut once;-), and of course better to leave a bit extra, and trim later.

Place the screen against the frame of your window, and then fold in half against the window. Mark your cut point with a piece of chalk or crayon.

When cutting your screen, you want to try to cut as straight as possible. This is where your straight edge or metal ruler comes in handy.

Step 3: Duct Tape Screen

Once you have your screen cut to size, now we're going to basically create a frame made of duct tape by placing each edge of the screen in the middle of a piece of duct tape, and then folding the tape in half. This serves two purposes: It will prevent the screen from fraying, and give us a frame around the screen to push thumb tacks through to affix the screen to the window and frame.

When you are finished taping all the edges, run a piece of tape through the middle of the screen, on each side. This is the point where the screen will fold.

This sounds simple, but it's a tedious and time consuming process. The more patient you are, the better your final results will be.

Step 4: Thumb Tack Screen to Window and Frame

Basically what you need to do is tack half a screen to the window and half to the inside frame, and half a screen to the outside of the window and half to the outside of the frame.

Before you tack anything, think about your order of operations. If you are working from the inside, and first tack to the frame, you wont be able to access the window... I'll let you figure this part out;-)

This is another time consuming and tedious process. The hard wood windows and frames I was working with are not intended to have thumb tacks pushed into them. I think for every tack I got pushed in, two or three bent or broke. This is where the lineman's pliers came in handy. Holding a tack in the pliers' teeth, and pushing, proves to be an effective way to get the tacks into the wood.

You can also try a hammer on the frame, but I wouldn't recommend taking a hammer to your window!

Step 5: Finished!

This was a pretty tedious process, and took up the better part of an afternoon, but being able to get a breeze through this window without any mosquitos coming in to dine makes it all worth it!

Above are a few photos of the finished product, inside and out.