How to Make No Sew Drapes

One of my all time most popular posts is a tutorial on how to make lined pinch pleat drapes.  Since that post, I have received many emails from people who want to make their own drapes, but just don't sew. 

With that in mind... today I am going to show you how to make custom drapes, even if you don't sew.   

 When I came across this fabulous fabric from Calico Corners...

I knew it would be the perfect jumping off point to start to add some color to my basement.

I promise that these drapes are easy to make.  If you can iron, you can make these drapes.

I ordered 5 yards of fabric (on sale for 25% off) to make two panels.  

My drapes finished length ended up being 87".  Honestly I probably should have ordered 5 1/4 yards just to avoid the stress of matching up the pattern, but luckily it worked out.  

I cut the 5 yards exactly in the middle and lined it up from there.

The secret ingredient to any no-sew project is a product called stitch witchery.  

I already had the rod and rings from my previous drapes, so I knew I just had to make a narrow header to clip the rings onto.  I started by ironing a crease about 1 1/4" on the top of the drape.

Then I folded the fabric again, this time over the stitch witchery.  Working in small sections I ironed it into place.  You can follow the directions on the stitch witchery, however, you just press down for ten seconds or so, without ironing it back and forth.  Then I did the same thing on both of the sides.  I folded the sides on the salvage end and then folded it again and pressed the stitch witchery inside the two folds to "sew" it all together.

Once the drapes were hanging, I pinned the hem in place, and then removed it and

 ironed the hem  using the stitch witchery again.

It was that simple.  The drapes look absolutely beautiful in the basement.

Lighting is still an issue downstairs, so it was next to impossible to get a decent photo.

It took less than an hour and a half to make both panels.  It probably could be done in an hour, but I wasted too much time worrying that I may not have ordered enough material.  

Before I even began the project, I took the fabric and hung it on the clips to determine whether or not I would line the drapes.  I had bought the twin sheets from Walmart thinking I would be lining these drapes.  However, like I said, the lighting is at a premium downstairs and I didn't want anything to darken the room anymore than it already is.  Also, the fabric is a high quality fabric that has a beautiful linen texture to it.  Lining it was unnecessary (and time saving).  

I hope you will give these a try.

-Judy

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Shabby Creek Cottage

Adding a Little Color

You know I have been working on trying to add a little color to our finished basement. 

 It seems to be a sea of brown and beige and it's time to lighten it up a bit.

I started by painting out of of the floor lamp between the two brown chairs last week.

I'm thinking a narrower, lighter color shade is in order now (you know how one thing leads to another).

I also think it's time to change up the drapes.

I saw this collection of fabrics at Calico Corners.

I just love these fabrics.  The good news is that Calico Corners is running a 25% off sale right now.

I am especially loving the big vibrant fabric they show on the sofa in this photo.  

I would use this fabric to make new drapes for this window.

I think this could really add some life to the basement and give me a great jumping off point to bring in even more color and maybe even find a new color for the walls.

What do you think?

DON'T FORGET TO STOP BACK TONIGHT AT 8PM EST 

FOR MY SIZZLE INTO SUMMER PARTY

-Judy

The Perfect Fabrics

Saturday I was out and about trying to get some Christmas shopping done.  However, I got a little side-tracked.  In my travels, I stopped at Joann's just to pick up some nail head trim and see if there were any fabrics that might work for my daughter's room.  The nail head trim is for a project I have planned for a message board for her room.  You can check out here and here to see what I've done so far.  I really want to have her room finished before Christmas Eve.  We have over 25 people coming for Christmas Eve and I would hate to have a half finished room.

In Joann's I saw this fabric and loved it.  I was fairly certain it was the right shade of aqua for her room so I picked up a yard of it.  It was on sale for only $7/yard so why not.

Then when I should have been finishing up my Christmas shopping, I passed by Calico Corners.  What could it hurt to stop in for a few minutes.  Well  I walked in I was greeted by a salesperson telling me that Calico Corners was having it's twelve days of Christmas sale.  On this particular day, all of the fabrics in the store were 25% off.  However, this sale was only good for this one day...the fabrics must be purchased by the end of the business day.  25% off - Ok...now that would require a little longer look.  At this point I have a good idea as to the direction I want to take the bedding in my ten year old daughter's room.  I want that Serena and Lily look...however, it needs to be in the right colors.    I've been in love with this fabric from Serena and Lily, but there is enough pink in my daughter's room right now...I have been really wanting to find a similar fabric in a blue/green or aqua.

Image from Serena and Lily

And then I saw it.  Why had I never seen this before?  The perfect fabric!  I've been in this store countless times over the past few months.  Well, as it turns out, it was in the wrong section.  I guess it stood out to me since it was with the wrong colors.  At $23.99/yard less 25% this could really work.  Isn't it so Serena and Lily like.  Soft, elegant, timeless.  It's called Selby in the color Robin.

If you remember I stenciled a damask pattern on a focal wall in my daughter's room.  You can read all about how I did it here.  I wanted to have a fabric that related to the stenciled wall.  This fabric would certainly do the trick.

While I was at Calico Corners I also saw a fabric I have been lusting over for a while now.

It the Aviary pattern by Thomas Paul through Duralee Fabrics.  It's in the color Robin (isn't it funny how both fabrics are in the color Robin yet the colors are quite different).  My daughter loves this pattern as well.  Every time I see it, I want to figure out a way to use it.

Image from Traditional Home April 2009 issue

Here is it on a chair.  Again I swoon.  My daughter swoons too.  She wants me to make the three shams and bed skirt out of this fabric.  Let me say again, I adore this fabric.  However,  I do fear that if I used it all over her room, we could both grow tired of it.  I wouldn't want our love affair to end that way.  I think this fabric is perfect in smaller doses...like on a chair or on toss pillows.  After some smooth talking I "convince" her that the damask fabric is actually the better choice, but I promise I will find somewhere in her room for our favorite Aviary fabric.

In case I wasn't off course enough from Christmas shopping, I next came across this fabric.  Where would this fit into my daughter's room you ask.   Well that's the problem...

When I saw this fabric I thought... this would be absolutely perfect in my mud room.  My mud room is on my short list of "to do" projects.  I could make a cushion for a bench that has been in and out of my mud room (I love having a bench, however, sometimes it's more in the way than I'd like).  So it's been moved in and out quite a few times.  With this fabric, it could move back in.  It was only $20.99/yard plus 25% off for upholstery weight fabric- before I looked at the price I was sure it would be over $50/yard.  It's called Acorn Filigree in the color Gunmetal.

So I borrowed all three samples.  When I got them home and tried them out, they all turned out to be perfect (when does that ever happen?).  So I called up my favorite sales person Michelle (I am probably on her list of favorites as well as we both share a love of fabrics...although I may border on being a fabricaholic) and ordered up six yards of the Selby damask, one yard of Thomas Paul's Aviary pattern and two yards of the charcoal damask.  I can't wait for them to come so that the sewing can begin.  This will bring me one giant step closer to finishing my daughter's room.

What do you think of the fabrics?  Do you too have an obsession with beautiful fabrics?  Today I MUST try to finish up my Christmas shopping.  Yikes!

-Judy

Master Bedroom

I thought you might like to see my master bedroom.  The room in person is beautiful.  To get a decent photograph of the room has presented quite a challenge.  It seems that no matter what I do with the camera, the color on the walls is not really represented completely accurately.   But here we go.

The room was redecorated about a year ago.  My journey to redecorate this room began with some fabrics I saw in Calico Corners. 

Images from Calico Corners

It's appropriate that the fabric collection is called "Love Affair" since I completely fell head over heals in love with the Robin's Egg Blue embroidered silk fabric...especially in combination with the bronze and ivory fabrics.  I knew I wanted this look for my room.  Most of the time I am inspired by a fabric which sets the direction I take a room in.  I loved the living room picture from Calico Corners.  I loved everything about that picture.   I went so far as to call up Calico Corners headquarters to find out where I could get the same area rug.  I did get in touch with the company only to find out the rug was over $7,000...way out of my budget.  But I would find something close...I was now on a mission.  We had hard wood floors beneath wall to wall carpet we had installed when we moved in.  We removed the carpet to reveal floors in perfect condition.  I had crown moulding installed in the room and then had the room painted a mocha color, a lighter color on the tray and a robin's egg blue on the ceiling (see photos below).  I was able to find a very similar rug in Einstein Moomjy.  I had looked at every rug store in a 50 mile radius.  I was exhausted from flipping rugs.  I had looked in the Einstein Moomjy near my home several times.  I decided one Sunday morning to try the Einstein Moomjy about an hour away.  Well it was worth the trip.  It is a 10 x 14 Nourison rug in the perfect colors of ivory, bronze and a touch of robin's egg blue.

My dilemma became how to bring in those fabrics from Calico Corners, without spending a fortune.  My favorite fabric of the collection is the embroidered silk fabric.  As it turns out,  I must have good taste,  as it costs a whopping $90/yard.  Even with the occasional 15% off sale...that's still alot of money.  But I also know you can get alot of bang for your buck if you use an exquisite fabric like this in small doses.  So I bought one yard, at 15% off, and made the two pillows on the bed myself as well as the pillow on one of the chairs and covered the tissue box. 

Covered tissue box with leftover fabric and trim

Compare the pillow on the bed that I made:

With the pillows from the Calico Corners photo:

Images from Calico Corners

Same size, same trim.  Trust me, I've never been so careful cutting out fabric before.

So, now I had my two pillows...but how about the bedding.  I searched everywhere.  I really mean everywhere.  I bought and returned so many different bedding sets.  Then one day I was walking through Target and saw the perfect duvet on clearance.

You can see the duvet in this picture.  It is a textured waffle pattern.  I then found the bed skirt (which looks and feels like silk), scroll shams, matching duvet, two smaller bronze pillows and bronze neck roll - all at Target and all on clearance! They are all from the Fieldcrest Luxury collection.   Now I was really getting somewhere.  But how could I achieve an embroidered silk drape without breaking the bank.  I have four windows in my bedroom so that's a lot of panels.  Of course, one of my favorite stores came through for me....Fortunoff.  I found these silk, lined and interlined panels on clearance.  You should know none of these items were found on a first try.  I had been to Fortunoff many times and probably didn't consider these drapes when they were full price.  I ultimately found them in another Fortunoff...one that was further away that I rarely went to.

My silk embroidered drapes

Calico Corner's silk embroidered drapes

I also loved the dragonfly damask fabric in the Calico Corners photo.  I had a waterfall bench that had been relegated to the basement.  It used to be in our living room when we lived in a Townhouse.  I decided I would recover it in this fabric and put it at the foot of our bed.  This is the result:

I cut a panel for the top and a panel for the bottom.  I used fabric glue when I connected to top and bottom pieces, just in case I ever wanted to remove the fabric, I didn't damage the fabric underneath.

Here are more views of the room.

You can see a chandelier peeking out in this picture.  I really wanted a chandelier in my bedroom, but we really needed to keep a ceiling fan.  We had a white casablanca fan prior to this that we had brought from our Townhouse.  I knew that needed to go, but how could I get a chandelier without giving up a ceiling fan.  I searched the internet and look at what I found at lamps plus:

It's a ceiling fan with a chandelier light attachment.  What a perfect fit.  By the way, I'm very into painting ceilings right now.  The tray is painted a lighter mocha than the walls and the ceiling is painted a robin's egg blue to match the fabric.

Another view of the room

After I finished the room, I was still on the hunt for a chair.  I wanted it to be comfortable...not just for show.  One day, about six months after the room was done, I was in Calico Corners and they were selling the floor model of this chair.  Right behind the chair they had the fabric that this chair is upholstered with on the same wall with all of the fabrics in my room.  I talked them down another couple hundred dollars below what they were asking, and put this beauty into the back of my car. 

I do love my bedroom.  I still feel like there is something missing behind the bed.  That is why I am still considering wallpapering that wall with the paper in this picture.

Image from Ethan Allen

It is the perfect colors.  The real issue - it's $85/single roll.  As you know wallpaper is priced by the single roll but sold by the double roll.  I need four double rolls for that wall.  Since it is so expensive, I wouldn't dare take a chance on us hanging it, so it would end up being an $800 wall in total between the paper and the installation.  Not sure it's worth it.  I will come up with a solution and let you know when I do.  

Let me know what you think of the room.  I love getting comments.  Thanks.

-Judy

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