You Know What They Say About The Cobbler's Wife

The same could be said of the home of a window treatment constructor.  My home is woefully absent of beauty in the way of window decor.  Last year we did a room for a decorator that I just loved.  Loved the fabric, loved the trims, I wanted it.  I saved all of the scraps from the treatments, the trim was so pricey that I took a sample of the fabric and for several weeks searched for a suitable substitute.  I'd love to tell you that I found one, but this trim was just to perfect.  Oh, the debates that raged in my teeny little mind.  Even procuring the yardage I needed at a wholesale price, this stuff (ordered from Paris-whoo!) was way beyond what I would usually find a way to justify.  I just couldn't get it off of my mind, I really wanted it.  So, I sucked it up, took on a couple of outside jobs, worked extra hours, saved my pennies and ordered it. 

Then I my mother and daughter cut the valances, it went into a box and sat.  For a year.  I know it!  What is wrong with me?  Well, last Friday afternoon when my half my family was camping and the other half was living their lives elsewhere I finished up work and all alone in the shop I decided to pull it out and look at it.  Then I thought, I'll just cut the linings.  Then I thought, I'll just cut the interlinings.  Then I thought, I'll just attach the facings.  Then I thought, I'll just pin the linings.  Then the fronts.  Maybe I'll just sew the linings together.  How about the fronts.  I was just about to put the linings and the fronts together to one another when Meg called, locked out of the house.  By that time it was closing in on eight o'clock and I was pretty hungry, so it seemed a good time to go.  I returned on Saturday to put the whole thing together and add my trim.

Usually I am pretty picky about how the trims go on. I try, whenever possible to center trims so that they are the same on each end. Most of the time this really is an unnecessary, picky little detail, as it is not seen and nobody would even notice that I took the time. This really was one of those cases, so I decided to go against my own grain and just attach the trim from the end and let it turn out however it would. Well, would you look at what happened?

Would you ever have predicted that it would serenipitously work out all on its own?! (Okay, the total truth? There are four valances and it worked on three! What is with that!? One of them is for some reason and fraction of something smaller or larger at the bottom and it didn't work out. Strange.... Now I have to figure out which window that one should be hung on.)

I am loving these window treatments, but of course it just opens up new doors. I have enough of the lining contrast to make either roman shades or a bed skirt. Which should I do? I don't know. And I have enough of that expensive trim left that it would be a shame not to use it, so now I am ordering some of the fabric to make a table cover and pillows, maybe shams (though there isn't enough to also go around the shams). I'm thinking if I do that, maybe I should make a duvet cover, but now we are talking yards of what is, even at my price, not inexpensive. I'm looking at working some serious extra hours, but like the trim, the more I think about it.......

Go ahead, click it!Then click for close ups.

Before you go thinking, ugh, they make crap! remember that this is just pinned to the table (yes the place is always a mess like that, drives me CRAZY!) and the pleats are roughed in, we will be meticulously fine tuning them before they are sewn in and then the valance will be put on a board. Then the horns will hang nicely and the side bits will go around the corners very prettily. I can't wait! After twenty-one years of marriage we are heading to a real bedroom that can be a lovely haven for us. I hope I can keep up with this roll I'm on.

I sometimes think it would be fun to show some of the things we construct in our work room. We don't have a retail store, working mainly through decorators, some of the best in the northeast, so we can get some really fun and creative things. My mother's partner (business and life) is a talented perfectionist. His roman shades are exact, he covers walls with fabric, and make wonderful padded cornices. These are being installed tomorrow, along with these we made curtains, pillow shams, a duvet cover and a bed skirt. The cornices are the feature, though. Yes, I did flip the picture, don't get too dizzy looking at it.

One hundred eighty-two to go. Maybe after my bedroom I'll think about getting some furniture for my barren living room. Hey-with no furniture I can fit a bunch of spinners and wheels in there!

Comments

[Kathy]

That fabric is absolutly gorgeous. Your bedroom is going to be a retreat. As for the living room, I'll all for no furniture and a bunch of spinners. :-)

[margene]

Very elegant! Good story about how they came to be. I can't wait to see them hanging in your house!

[Danielle]

Beautiful! I still need to make a cornice or something similar to go over our sliding door in the living room -- the other two windows have curtains, but I've been lazy about doing something for the third set.

[Vicki]

Oooh, gorgeous! You'll show them after installation, won't you??
Please. ; )

[Debi]

It's lovely Terry! So romantic looking, just as a bedroom should be :)

Your sewing talents take my breath away every time!

[Marcia]

Incredible work! Having made one so-so ballon shade and a not-very-good Roman shade, I am in awe! I did make a valance for our dining room, but it's a cheat copy of one I saw in Country Curtains and is just hung on a triple rod. Mostly I make flat panels to hang on tension rods and roll up with a ribbon! I would never let you see any of them!

[Manise]

Very nice! My house is devoid of such beauty on the windows- except in the kitchen/ family room that a friend made and I inherited when she moved. Sigh. One day.....

[Norma]

Wow, NICE! I, too, have either no, or not satisfactory, window treatments (mostly "no").

[CyndiG]

I love them!! I would use the left-overs to make the bed skirt and then something else for the Roman shades, I think. I can't wait to see them!

Of course, I owe all my window treatments to you and your mom and Mark and I get so many nice comments on them!!

[Karen]

Oh wow, I LOVE that fabric! Your bedroom is going to be beautiful!