As promised in a previous post, here is the “how to” on the Estate Sale Drapes. First, let me remind everyone that my friend, Cha Cha revamped these gorgeous drapes. Not I.
As always, it is a personal taste whether you like/love/or hate these, but my friend’s patience & mad skills are without question. She took extremely old (but in great shape) faded drapes & brought them back to life. By using the below:
She used many of them, because there was so much tracing involved.
She did it over a-lot of time, watching tv, listening to music. “It was my therapy” she would tell me when she was going through a difficult time in her life. I am not sure how long she worked on these. My guess is weeks. But she would never “fess -up” to say how long it took.
Seeing the image above, I am sure makes one realize just how detailed these drapes are. {and, she G*A*V*E* them to me.} 4 panels!
The above pic, is the lining (3 layers of linings!) and the hem on the back side of the drapes. I clipped the drapes back to take this pic.
Now, here is the details for a very thrifty valance. In my previous dwelling, before this current house, I had 2 huge windows. I mean huge. I was a single girl when she gave these drapes to me, and the cost for 2 rods, hardware, & 2 HUGE valances were just out of my budget. So I waited. I waited till I found the perfect weight & color of fabric for a valance that was cheap. As in a $1.00 a yard for designer bolt fabric. And I got the muslin fabric at Wal-mart. Which was more then the designer fabric.
Then, a friend was re-designing her old large kitchen. She had a sack full of pulls/kitchen door knobs that she was going to throw away.
Then my genius Mom went to work…we bought 35 hanger bolt screws from ACE hardware. What’s a hanger bolt, you ask? The trick about a hanger bolt is that is screws into a wall AND has a thread to screw something (?) on the other end. Genius invention! And, then my mom sewed 2 large valances + all those fabric loops. Lots of fabric loops.
And, we came up with this for the valance! My highest cost for the valance again was the lining. Everything else was either free, $4.99 for a box of hanger bolts, & $13.00 for the valance fabric.
This is the dining room set. You can click here to see a glimpse of the other set in our family/living room.
And, that is how my beautiful friend Cha Cha & my dear Mom’s skills revamped these gorgeous {at least to me} $30.00 estate sale drapes & made 2 huge designer valances on a dime & a door knob. 🙂
E-gads! Being an illustrator, I can only guess at how long that took. But, I just love the results. Your best of 2010 was fun to look back through. Also loving the chalkboard wall.
Brittany
http://www.prettyhandygirl.com
I really love the way your friend made these beautiful drawings on your drapes! It makes the drapes even more dramatic and elegant as well. Even without curtains, a window can stand out even with just the use of blinds (Indianapolis). And there are also a lot of pretty Window treatments (Indianapolis) that can be used to beautify your home even more.
The curtain look so fantastic…I really like it…appreciate you share it.
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