Sewing Room Curtains Finally

Habitica has finally gotten me to work on several way-past-due projects. One of them was to make curtains for my sewing room. I was originally going to make pieced panels, but I failed to find the motivation to do that. Finally, when I decided to just use a plain cafe curtain, the project made it back into my queue.

Despite having a whole wall of fabrics, I either didn't have enough of the fabrics I liked, or didn't like the fabrics I had enough of, so I purchased a new piece of fabric. I wanted something that would look good with the stencil in that room.

I settled on this little herb fabric and I think looks quite nice. There were only 5 yards left and I needed 6 yards, so I bought the 5 yards and added a coordinating color at the hemline. I like it.

I discovered while working on this project, that some of the fabrics on the wall are really quite damaged from the sun. I knew most had a bit of fading, but I discovered when I unwound that purple that fabrics can fade on more than just their outer layer. Oh well. Hopefully, this will reduce the problem in the future.

Master Bath Mostly Finished

All I have left to do is to put another coat of varnish on the little shelf, and that project in the master bathroom is officially done. I'd also like to install grab bars in the shower, but we didn't get to that this week. We still need to pick up masonry drill bits.

Now that we have the towels and other stuff off the counter, we were able to oil the soapstone again. I much prefer the darker green color the oil brings out. And I also finished re-hemming the curtains so they'd fit in the windows again.

The curtain fabric is a cheery, bright William Morris pattern. The colors aren't period, but the pattern is.

I was also pretty excited that JCPenney's finally carried the dark green towel color again this year. I've been looking for nearly five years for towels that matched the soapstone—I knew they made them because I had bought one back in our old house in Forest Grove (around 2000)—finally this year they had the right color green, called Green Gables.

I bought them during their Labor Day Sale when they were marked down 50%, then I used a coupon for another 30% off! They were a really good deal. And now that I know they take so long to cycle around to this dark green color, I stocked up on hand towels.

I've made at least a dozen more squares in the past couple of days for my sewing room curtains. And when I was in there sewing last night I started gazing longingly at my fabric shelves. I couldn't understand why I wanted to make another quilt so bad until I realized it has been nearly five years since I finished my last one. No wonder I'm getting the itch to quilt again. I think I'll have to start another quilt in December, once I'm done with NaNoWriMo.

Finishing Sewing Projects

This week has found me in my sewing room. I am trying to finish projects already in the works before I take over the room with my massive reupholstery project.

I am currently back working on my sewing room curtains. Since I tend to work assembly line fashion, I only have the one finished sample square to show. I'm still building components to build the blocks and should finish quite a few at a time.

I guess it's been since December since I last talked about this project. Ultimately, I decided to disassemble the Roman shades and reuse the squares in curtains. It took me about a day of hanging out watching Netflix and ripping apart all three Roman shades. I ended up with 16 of the green squares, but that isn't enough for curtains for my sewing room. So I am making a second set of 16 squares, this one with purple as the basis. Once it's put together, I think it will go well with the sewing room colors.

Anyway, I did get started on it in December, but then I didn't have the motivation to make 100s of 2.5" pieced squares. This time I'm taking it a little slower. I work on it for a few of hours then go do something else.

The something else yesterday was making new pillowcases for the guest bedroom. I realized I never made matching pillowcases for the purple and yellow quilt so I spent about an hour pawing thru fabrics and then making these.

It's really nice to have the guest room back in useable condition.

Demo Begins!

I guess Jeff was in the mood to get started, because he just began demo-ing the bathroom! Weeee! We hired a tile guy today and there wasn't anything else holding us up (except inertia).

It started with wanting to look in that little bump out to see if we could get rid of it. I'm expecting the plumber can replace the 4" cast iron vent pipe with a thinner modern PVC pipe.

I also managed yesterday to finish taking apart the 3 Roman shade panels. What a tedious project that was; took me nearly 2 hours apiece. Once my sewing machine is set up again I'll figure out how to adapt those panels for use in my sewing room. I'm actually sort of thinking about just turning them into curtains, rather than shades. I'm not entirely happy with the Roman shades as the plastic ribs you use on them get brittle pretty quickly and I don't think they'll last all that long and I'll have to revisit the project in just a few years. I'm sort of lazy, I'd rather make curtains that can hang in there for many years.

Sewing Room Window Coverings

When I got a sale email today from the company we previously ordered blinds from, I realized I really should think about how to cover the windows in the sewing room. It really isn't good for that cherry furniture to have the sun beating down on it all day.

My first inclination was to order blinds as I did for the other two rooms, but when I went and checked their website it looks like they're not carrying the same options anymore and I couldn't get the same stain color. So, that got me wondering if I could salvage the Roman shades I made for Redwood City. (My father removed them about a year after we moved out and returned them to me.)

They are, of course, not the right size for the windows here. But I made three panels for that bedroom and I have two windows in my sewing room, so I should have more than enough materials once I take them apart. I'm sure it would make more sense to just make new shades, but I did like these and the colors would play well with my sewing room and I don't think I have enough of the peach to make new panels from scratch. In fact, I'm not sure if I have any left or not. I guess I will find out when I unpack my fabrics in a couple of weeks.

More than likely if I tear them apart, I would remove the blackout liner so they let light through like the other set I made. I think it's pretty and looks a bit like stained glass.

What do you guys think? Tear apart the old ones, or just ditch them and make new window coverings from scratch?

Stupid computer games . . .

Jeff and I must have been channeling our inner teenager for the last couple of weeks because we managed to get totally distracted by an online computer game. The time just sort of slipped by and we barely noticed. But last Friday I looked up the date we started and was shocked to realize how much time we had wasted!

Partly, I think we were feeling really overwhelmed by it all and it was easy to go tuck our heads into our computers and ignore all the other stuff. So, I decided it was time for some project rescheduling. I still want to get many of the same projects done this year, but I'm trying to be more realistic about our abilities to actually finish them before summer.

I think we have finally gotten our act together and progress on our lists should resume. Right now we're focusing on small projects.

Jeff went to storage and brought home a car-full of boxes of art (which wasn't all of them). Geez, we have a lot of art. We obviously had a lot of wall space in our big house and we probably have about 3 times as much as will fit in this house; we'll probably have to get rid of a lot of it. We're still trying to sift through it all to figure out which pictures will get to stay and where they go. (I hate this part of downsizing.)

Today I finally made curtains for our master bathroom. This is one of those "why didn't I do this sooner" projects. It really only took me a few hours and most of the time was sitting around sewing on rings.

I didn't like the old curtains because they were faded polka dot and didn't really seem like they were designed for these windows since they were about 4 inches too long. And they didn't open and close very well because the casing was very bulky on the rod.

This is pretty much the only before picture I can find but it's not very good because it is backlit.

This is what the new curtains look like. The fabric I used is a William Morris design done in bright colors. I've sewn on rings so the curtains will actually open and close, unlike the old ones. They're cheery and bright and I like them.

Installed Wood Blinds

After I discovered that mini-blinds were period (1900), I've kept them in mind as a solution for finishing the windows in our bedrooms.

Originally, I had a plan to make quite elaborate applique Roman shades, but I'd never gotten beyond the planning stage. I did have the basic plain Roman shades I could have hung, but I didn't like the fabric with our refinished bedroom colors.

Shortly before Christmas I ran across a good sale (35% off) on Levolor wood blinds. I thought about it for nearly a week, but finally, in the interest of being done, I ordered them.

Unfortunately, our windows were not deep enough to accommodate the 2-inch slats, so I contented myself with the 1-inch. I ordered them with the fabric straps—to match the period drawing at right—in colors that matched the wall paint.

I don't love them, but they'll do. And it will be nice in the morning after we've gotten to bed too late.

Dining Room Curtains Hung

I decided I needed a day off paint stripping. So, instead, I spent a leisurely day hand sewing while listening to my current audio book.

By this evening, I finished sewing the rings along the top edge of the dining room curtains and now they're hung up. I still don't feel comfortable starting the embroidery on the design—the embroidery hoop may smear paint if it isn't thoroughly dry.

I'm not 100% happy with the way the panels turned out, but they're probably not so bad for my first effort making my own stencils.

I guess now I should probably start thinking about what I should make for the guest bedroom. Maybe I'll try some appliqué...

Paint Stripping Progress

One of the funny things about paint stripping is it always takes so much longer than you think it should. More than a week ago I thought I was almost done, but here it is—eleven days later—and I'm still only almost done. Sigh.

I spent something like four hours a day over the last several days and I do feel like I made good progress. I have mostly cleaned up all the crowns, which is the most difficult task, and I have cleaned up the woodwork around the linen cabinet.

I'm still working on cleaning up the baseboards, which isn't particularly difficult to do, but it's unpleasant because I end up sitting on the floor, which has by now gotten pretty gross.

Yesterday afternoon, I finished the second dining room curtain—the last curtain I plan to make for the main floor. I'm pretty excited to get this project finished!

Once the oil paint dries in several days, I'll start embroidering the panels.

Stencilled Curtain

Hot weather is a good excuse to work on indoor sit-down projects.

So, this afternoon I stencilled the bottom edge of one of the dining room curtain panels! It actually went faster than I was expecting—only about three hours of work to figure out the spacing (to make all the gaps the same size) and to also do the stencilling.

Stencilled curtain panel

Bottom edge stencil pattern

I'm hoping to finish the second curtain panel tomorrow, after I have a chance to wash it.

Finished Living Room Curtain

I continued to plug away at the third living room curtain while I was in front of the TV this week. Yesterday afternoon I finished it. Woo hoo!

This curtain, unfortunately, doesn't really get seen because it's behind the bird cage. But I know it's done and I can finally cross another project off my To Do list.

Last Week's Projects

While in California last week, I brought the last curtain from the living room and got to work finishing the embroidery. I mostly worked on it during the long ride. I finished just over half of the curtain.

Jeff, on the other hand, was quite the busy bee. He planted the rest of the vegetable plants and he got to work on the guest bedroom paint stripping project. He cleared out the rest of the furniture/stuff and finished masking the floors. He also stripped, with the heat gun, all of the picture rail and the woodwork that was above my reach. Yeah!

A Bit More Stenciling

I figured I would try and get one more quick project out of the way before I take off for California tomorrow. These curtains have been lying around on the dining room table for about three weeks and I wanted to clear them before I go.

Last time I posted about this project I lamented a mistake; I had stenciled rust on the border where I had intended to stencil green. After it dried, I went over the rust bit with green, but it just ended up looking black. (You can see it in the upper row on this photo.) Oh well, it looks like I'll have an embroidery project this summer now.

Today I finished the last two side borders on both dining room curtains.

The bottom edge stencil is going to take quite a bit of planning and layout, so I didn't have time for them today. I'm hoping I'll get to them later in the month.

Dining Room Curtains

While Jeff is off visiting his family in Southern California, I've been trying to finish sewing projects. I spent the first day sewing the binding on my historic quilt. I machine sewed the binding on the front side, and I've been slowly hand sewing the back edge while watching TV.

Today, I started stencilling the dining room curtains. I just finished one edge before taking a break. And then I realized I had goofed up the outside border color. I painted it with the rust color when I had intended to paint it with green. Oh well. And I'm also a bit disappointed there is so little difference between the blue and green colors.

I'm not entirely sure whether I want to wait and let this dry and try and paint over it with green, or wether I just go with the mistake and paint it all in the rust color. Unfortunately, it takes days for this oil paint to dry and I wouldn't be able to see if the green would cover for probably a week. I may just have to go with it.

Small Projects

As the tour deadline approaches, we have been spending time trying to actually finish projects. All the way. Done.

Today, Jeff started cutting the tiny mouldings for the leaded glass panels. These tiny pieces are very difficult to work with, but hopefully we'll finish the pieces tomorrow.

While he was working on that project, Sharon installed the little metal pulls at the bottom of the shades.

She had Jeff drill holes into the center of the wood strips. Then she inserted them into the shade casing to locate the proper place to put the hole in the fabric.

She used an awl to spread apart the fabric fibers without cutting them so, in theory, they won't fray around those holes.

Then she removed the wood strip and pushed in a larger awl to make the hole a bit larger than the screw hole.

Then she reinserted the wood strip and inserted the screw into the hole and attached the brass ring. Though, the screw is a bit long, so we'll have to locate some shorter screws eventually.

(It took her a while to locate these small, affordable brass ring pulls at tablelegs.com.)

Today, we also stopped by Fabric Depot to look for fabric to reupholster the new morris chair. The fabrics are awful right now; it feels like the 70s are back. We're definitely going to have to expand our search area.

Though, on the bright side, we discovered Fabric Depot carries Toweling. It's been difficult to find attractive glass cloths for the kitchen that aren't stupid expensive. So, we purchased the remainder of what Fabric Depot had in stock in Sharon's favorite print to give it a try. Though, it's odd they sell the fabric in yards, rather than panels, because you end up getting wasted fabric on each end that doesn't sew up into a proper towel with the borders on the bottom edge. Maybe they think that sewers won't care where the borders are placed.

Sharon already washed it up and hemmed up the three towels she could get out of the piece.

We had another big Craigslist day today. We bought a nearly new sliding compound miter saw! Now we just need to invest in a table saw and a router and we can probably start some of our outstanding woodworking projects.

We Made Roller Shades!

This project was quite a trial for us! It seemed like everything that could go wrong--did! But, at last, they are done enough to use now. (We still have to add a small brass pull on the bottom and we have to find a secure way to attach the linen to the rod, but they're up and operational.)

DIY Stenciled linen roller shades

DIY Stenciled linen roller shades

We're not going to give a tutorial for how to make roller shades because there are already other excellent websites that do it.
Sewing 101: Roller Blinds

1959 instructions to make your own fabric roller shades

Update way later, because apparently my earlier links no longer work. This was the best description I've been able to find to show the process:

DIY Roller Shade

We will, however, include information about what worked and what didn't. 

Dining Room Curtains

Progress on interior projects continues at a steady pace. Sharon finished off her quilt backing and worked on a couple other non-house sewing projects.

Today we started cutting for the last four leaded glass panels. We're treating these last four panels as a "set" and cutting all the pieces up front and then planning to put each of them together, one after the other.

Sharon also got started on the dining room curtains. At this point, they are not hemmed along the bottom edge. She is letting them hang for a couple of days to be sure they stretch evenly.

In fact, this is really just the starting point. Besides hemming, she is going to sew on rings and apply stencils. Her earlier successful attempts have given her more confidence to try something a bit more difficult.

She chose this design from the article "Draperies for the dining room: designs in stencil and embroidery" from the October 1910 Craftsman Magazine. Though, she's not planning to stencil along the top edge.

For this project, Sharon is going to have to cut her own stencils. So, she ordered the materials to do that: a stencil cutting tool and some mylar. But this project surely won't be finished before the kitchen tour.