About 18 months ago, I suddenly realized my dining room did not have curtains, only tired shades the previous owners had left behind. I shopped for some time but it was impossible to find anything that seemed right or fit. Although I had not done much sewing recently, I found a pattern for valences that seemed simple and estimated two hours. I chose the style in the bottom left:
The pattern was much more complicated than I expected. I brought it with me to two of my favorite fabric stores for help figuring out how much fabric I needed and even these experts were perplexed! I also emailed McCall's customer service for assistance and they explained which instructions to use (they also said the two hours applied to sewing time, not cutting, layout, or agonizing over the instructions). As my brother would say, "Learning a lot about McCall's..."
I am sure I had spent at least 10 hours reading the pattern before I even found blue paisley I liked. I bought the entire length of fabric because I knew that matching the paisley would be difficult (and it was). Every time I was developing momentum, someone would come to visit and I would have to remove everything from the dining room table - the only surface big enough for all the fabric! And then there was the day I reached page 8 and read:
Using a hack saw, cut metal bar to Width Between Brackets measurements minus 1"
Don't you think it's just a little passive aggressive to lure me into a
deux heures pattern and just assume I own a hacksaw? For the record, I do not, and I think there should have been a hacksaw warning on the package. Reading that instruction still makes me laugh. It took several months to find a plausible metal bar and to get someone to cut it, then to choose new curtain rods (when the first set were not sturdy enough) which the same guy mounted for me. Try explaining to men in a hardware store what a valence is and why you need a specially cut metal bar! And by now we are up to
dozens of hours. The windows are slightly different sizes which added to the complexity and the feeling I was doing everything twice and not making progress. But that scallopy look was tricky...
Still, all's well that ends well! I added the last blue ties tonight and both valences were done, about a year after I bought the pattern!
What do you think?
3 comments:
They look lovely. Far superior to anything I could ever do. Now as I look at the plain shades in my own bedroom, I think they are looking better and better :-)
I don't understand why the bar had to be cut down?
I am so glad the curtains are finally finished, I know you have been agonizing about them for so long!
The metal bar went into a casing (made out of the same material as the lining) which got sewn onto the valence back just above the gathers to make the whole thing lie flat, so it was supposed to be narrower than the valence (perhaps in case it curved with one of those white curtain rods with bends at the end). As it says on the pattern, foolproof! Or as they also say, infallible!
Last night I found more fabric if I have the energy to make matching place mats...
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