Doug & Diane's Kitchen Valances

Happy New Year!!!!! Woohooo!!! Christmas is over!!!! Please do not think I am a scrooge or a humbug- I am as gung ho happy about Christmas as you can get. But this year I was really ready for the peace and quiet of January.

Right before Christmas I finished up with Doug & Diane's valances for their kitchen and laundry room. They wanted matching valances for a bay window in the kitchen, a window over the sink and one for the laundry room, which is right next to the kitchen.

Doug & Diane are the cutest couple! They are two of the nicest people on the planet. They are so fun to work with as not only are they nice, but they have really great ideas about what to put in their house. And speaking of their house- it is beautiful! When I was going to install these valances, it was a couple of days before Christmas. As I was driving to their house, I said to my self "Self, I bet their house is the most beautifully decorated on their street" . And I was right! :)

Here is the Bay Window we were covering.

And here is the sink window:

When we started to talk about the style for the kitchen, I asked them what they liked. Doug likes tailored. He doesn't want any fluffy, frilly business. Diane liked the idea of a handkerchief valance: she had mentioned one in a friends home that she liked. The continuous style appealed to her. Doug did not care for the casual look that those can have. I combined their likes/dislikes and realized I had to find a valance pattern that was tailored not frilly, continual on piece design, could incorporate two fabrics, and be able to be altered to accomadate two smaller windows over the sink and in the laundry room, and also look great over the main bay window. No problem! And here was the kicker: install in less than one inch of space.

Look at the pictures above of the bay window and sink window- I had an inch above and an inch to each side. That was it. Yep. 1 inch.

I looked through my patterns & books. Nothin'. I looked on line. Nothin'. There were a lot of patterns that fit a few of the criteria but not all. And then I went to the Pate Meadows Window Treatment pattern website. Jackpot!

I love Pate Meadows patterns. They are wonderful because:

• They include very clear directions with drawings and detailed descriptions.
• They are printed on heavy white paper. This paper is much easier to work with than commercial tissue paper, especially with home decor fabrics.
• They are easily alterable for different size windows.
• Customer service is awesome! They ship fast and have great communication. Also, I lost my install sheet at some point for the Erin valance . I couldn't remember how long the side bar pieces needed to be cut for the supporting frame . I called them and they were so nice as to read that part of the pattern to me right over the phone!
• They turn out freakin' gorgeous every time. And I mean absolutely freakin' gorgeous.

Drawbacks:

• They are not cheap. Average price: $29.95. Yea. For a paper pattern. I am the girl who won't purchase commercial patterns unless they are on sale for .99. But I will buy these, they are that good. Spend money where it is worth it- I always say. And Pate Meadows patterns are worth it.
• They always seem to overshoot on the fabric estimate. I now know to fully figure out my own yardage - I don't go by their estimate. I draw out exactly how I am going to lay out the pattern pieces on the fabric and figure out my yardage that way. Yes, some extra is good: I don't do a project without some sort of extra factored in. But each of the 4 patterns I have made so far had much higher fabric estimates in the pattern than it turned out I needed. That is my one and only issue with the patterns.

We chose the Delaine pattern. It is a wonderful design that incorporates two or more fabrics, has a welt corded edge (Doug likes welt cording :) ) , can install in next to no space and is just really cute!

We had found the right fabric by accident. In my search for the fabrics for their den, this fabric was one of our options. It didn't work for their den, but it was perfect for the kitchen.

This is the Stripe:

When searching for a fabric it is sometimes easier to take pictures, rather than write down the name , price and colors of each option. Plus, some fabric stores are chintzy with the samples so taking a pictures gets me a much better idea of the pattern. This is the end of the bolt for the stripe. I found it at Hancock's for $9.99 a yard.

I found our main floral fabric at Blaney's in Norfolk. Way out on Military Highway past Janaf, past the airport = out in the city version of the boonies. They have great prices and are very nice. I left my favorite sweater there in early November. When I went back in they had it right there for me, knowing I would eventually be back in :) I was sitting in front of their counter, checking out thinking that the sweater on the chair looked very much like mine. The one I couldn't find.

The colors on the fabric matched the colors in the pretty artwork that Doug & Diane have in the kitchen. We all liked the red background and the fun, painterly flowers in bold colors. And that it was $14.98 a yard. That's not bad.

I almost had a heart attack when I went in to buy the fabric. It had been about a month since I had gotten the sample. I went to where the fabric used to be located and ti wasn't there. I searched the store and couldn't find it. I believe I was slightly hyperventalating. When I asked about it, they helped me search it out- it was hidden in a corner behind a ton of other bolts and down to the last 6 yards on the bolt. Luckily, I only needed 5.5! Whew!!

The stripe that I found at Hancock's did have a matching floral that went with it but it was very tropical and that is not the look we wanted in the kitchen. I must have been researching this fabric in the summer because you can see my foot in the left upper corner! I think I took these pictures when I was finding fabrics for their den... I had liked the stripe for their home from the beginning :)

To make these valances first I made cording! I learned a most wonderful way to make cording from Mary Parker, slipcover maker extraordinaire. Out of Ptown, Va. You make a fabric ' tube', cut around it and you have one long perfect continuous strip to cover the welt cording. It takes half the time of cutting out each strip.

Here I am cutting it out. I took pictures while I was creating this cording to put into a lesson for my students about welt cording.

You end up with one incredibly long beautiful strip of fabric!

Then I cut out all of the pieces for the valances. Each swag and pleat section were seperate pieces. So I was cutting for hours, it seemed like. Each valance has a face fabric, a back lining and a flannel interlining.

Here is my dining table with the pleat fabric laid out on it ready to cut out the pleaat sections.

This is the face fabric of the valance sewn together. Look in the back! There is my Christmas tree! :) In this post we have gone from a shot of my sandled foot in a fabric store in summer to my Christmas tree. I guess we weren't in a hurry on these :)

I then applied the cording to the face fabric

• Here is the greatest tip you will ever get about cording in your life: sew it on with the CORDING ON THE BOTTOM and the FABRIC on the top. The welt cording should be against the feed dogs. This ensures that the fabric does not pucker.

In this photo I have finished sewing on the cording and have sewn all three layers; the lining , interlining and face fabric, together. I then turned it inside out, slip stitched the end closed, pressed and sewed the pleats in place. Pressing did take a while as you really have to press the living sunshine out of the fabric to get it to stay.

Once I got all three valances finished I needed to put my idea of how to hang them into motion. Pate Meadows uses really neat adapters that screw right into the wall . They extend 3.5 inches from the wall. The valances have loops sewn into the pleats that the valance hangs from on the posts.

We couldn't use them. The base of adapter post is about 3 inches across. We only had an inch of space in which to install. Again thank you o inconsiderate home builders who didn't think ahead that these lovely homeowners would eventually want to hang window treatments in their home.

So my idea was to cut dowels into 3.5 inch pieces and paint them to match their moulding (Luckily we just moved and I still have a can of ultra super bright white gloss paint!) Then we would screw a decorative knob onto one end and the other end straight into the wall.

This is my dowel painting contraption that I made. I took a pice of scrap wood and hammered nails into it, leaving about an inch out of the wood. The dowels (cut and drilled by my sweet husband) could then stand up on their own . This made it so easy to paint them.

Here is a side view of the post adapters from the Pate Meadows website. They are really nice, I was upset I couldn't use them. I do think the dowels turned out fantastic as they blend right into the molding so you don't really see them at all.

Double sided screw. Also called a splicer screw. Use a #8 size for drawer knobs.

Here is the final valance! The posts that the valances hang on are installed in between the windows in that one inch of space and on teh molding itself.

The bay window:
See how the fabric matches thier paintings on the left side? perfect!

The bay window and the sink window. While Doug and I were installing, Diane was searching for and found her mothers pound cake recipe. I cut it out of the photo but the counter was piled with butter and cream cheese and all things yummy to make pound cake:)

Here is an up close view of the front of the bay window valance.

The laundry room window. I suggested that they paint one wall of the laundry room red. Wouldn't that look really cool?

The sink window. I love the Santa's on the window!

Here is the side of the bay window valance.

Halloweeen!

Ahhh. Long time no blog, I know. I would love to sit down regularly and update this thing. I am envious of the time and discipline of bloggers who update every day. I follow a couple of blogs that post daily and I love to read them. My goal is once a month. So far I am not hitting that goal :) but I am getting there!
I have SO BUSY! I have lots of new students and they are fantastic! Also, I have suddenly been hit with many new clients who have naked windows for me to cover. And then there was halloween.
I love halloween!!!!! I love pumpkins and halloween decorating. I love everything about halloween- especially getting to wear a costume. And since I now have my own darling mini-me who shares my love of dressing up- I have two costumes to make each year.
This year, Eden decided she wanted to be a princess. Ok. We can do that. But I would not allow her to cheat and go the disney route. We had to make it unique. Also, Eden wanted us to match. I found a costume pattern that came in a child size as well as an adult size. We decided to do as princess and queen going to a masquerade ball. My plan was for us to both have matching dresses, her in pink & white and mine in black & red and masquerade masks.

We decided to do Eden's in Pink & White. Here she is!

To save a bit of money I used Wright lace hem tape for the edges of the sleeves- it was three yards for about $2 . I gathered it using my handy dandy ruffler foot. I also used the Wide lace hem tape for the trim all along the edge, where the pink meets the white. It turned out to be MUCH less expensive that buying pre-gathered lace trim.

Doesn't she look like a pretty frosted cupcake?

Sleeve detail:

I ordered the mask on Etsy from Lyssane. You can visit her beautiful shop here:

The mask was perfect!! Absolutely exquisite! I loved the attention to detail- there were little sparkles inside the flowers and all of the ribbon pieces were neatly tucked inside. The mask was even lined on the inside with super soft felt so it was super comfy for Eden to wear. The mask made the outfit!! If you need a mask- don't go anywhere else! It was perfect!





My dress was completed at the very last minute. I had planned on more time but woops! Ran out! I used a different method (pivoting the pieces ) to alter the bodice and I wish I had stuck with my normal method ( painstakingly cutting them apart and piecing ). After making up two muslin test versions, I still wish I had had time to alter it once more. I changed the front to a lace up detail, instead of the bows on the pattern. I also added in a piece at the top of the bodice so that it was not so low. ( I was asked to read to Eden's class for Halloween and I really felt that the dress was just a bit too revealing for 2nd graders.) Also, to read for her class I needed to be a story book character. So at the very last second, I changed my costume into the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland. I appliques hearts onto the front of the dress. I ended up not needing a mask. I drew hearts on my face and my lipstick was heart shaped.

(You can see my husband and Eden in the reflection in the glass door :) )

Here I am after I read to Eden's class.

My Mini-Me & Me

I used a satin edge stitch for my sleeves as I was not going for the 'frosted cupcake' look of Eden's dress.

Happy Halloween!

Brag Photos

I love my job. Have I told anyone that recently? I am sure I have but I need to say it again- I love my job. One of the reasons I love my job is that I have the sweetest , brightest most creative students.

One of my students is Rachael. She is 10. Rachael is going to grow up to be an awesome fashion designer! Here is her first skirt she made along with the tote we made to match.


And here is the tote


I am so proud of her!!!



Another of my students is Daisy. She is 17 and studying fashion marketing and design.
This skirt has a zipper in the back. We also made a zipper clutch to match.

So Cute!!!!

Here is the skirt we just finished. We learned gathering and attaching a ruffle on this one:


Daisy is now moving on to clothing from patterns. I will post pictures of her next project soon! :)

Flower girl dresses

I finished the flower girl dresses!! Hooray! Yippee! Hale-freakin-lugia!! I worked on these for a month! Here they are!

They are fully lined with huge layers of crinoline inside. They have invisible zippers and tiny hems. The bows are pinned on so that the girls could remove them later after the ceremony .


While making these I almost got dragged into a bridezilla moment with the bride and her soon to be sister in law. I did my best to stay out of that but I have learned my lesson once again: weddings create insane, white satin spewing, hemline dictating, obsessed over the tiniest of detail that no one ever, ever, ever is going to see, monsters....out of what are normally nice gals.
I therefore, from here on out, am going to try to stick to my rule of not sewing for anything wedding related. I broke my rule for these folks as I used to live next door. But uh-uh. Weddings make people crazy and I have enough crazy in my life, thank you very much, without going looking for more.


Also , for the wedding I made organza swags to go around a railing that went around the center of the reception. I didn't take a picture of those. Sometimes you get so sick of working on something that you don't ever want to see it again. That was the case with these swags.
The bride's mom was very specific while at the same time being very vague about what she wanted- so I had to interpret her gestures. I created 8 "tailored, but not pleated, identical , but 'flowy looking', gathered at the sides, even, but on purpose, like you meant to do it, but it just happened naturally....swags". Yea. With ribbons at the sides and in the center to hang it onto the railing. I was happy to see them hanging at the reception and looking tailored... but not.
Again, here is my solemn vow- no more sewing for weddings!!:) :)

New studio!

This spring my family moved to a new home. We love it! We have been busy unpacking boxes and painting and learning about our new abode. I especially love it as I now have a studio to work in! No more living room sewing lessons! Hooray!
The sewing room is on the far end of the house and has a door leading directly to it from the side. I chose a pale peach/pink for the walls and a fiery rust red for the accents. It looks awesome! Very girly but not too froufrou .
The most fantastic thing about having the space is that I have been able to take on more students. This is my only job now and I love it! I am able to be home for my family and have a job that is really fun. It rocks! This is what I have been working towards for the past two years. It has finally paid off and is a thriving busy business.! Yippee!

This weeks I have had three lessons. It is a slow week and I am happy for the break! ☺ I have 7 scheduled for next week . I have some new students and they are a fun bunch! They are all so interested and eager to learn- I just love it!

My plan is to write each week about my projects and what everyone is learning in their lessons.

This week Nina finished her purse! She did a great job! She was so careful with her stitching .
Here she is showing it off!



Nina is 11 and wants to a fashion designer one day.
Here is a photo of her winding her bobbin.



Amy is new with me and made her first project with this week: She made a tablerunner and it turned out gorgeous! She chose beautfiul fabrics and did a lovely job of topstitching aroud the edges. She is going to send me a picture:)


Today Candace learned all about the wonderful world of hems. She is heading back to college soon and we are trying to pack in as much as we can before she leaves. Next week we will make her first skirt.


I am going to take pictures of the new studio tonight and will put them up soon.

See ya!