It’s About Time!!

It’s taken far longer then I care to admit, but I’ve finally finished our !$%! dining room drapes! I wish I could say that the delay was simply a case of life getting in the way of projects, but I’d be fibbing.

For months I thought about HOW I’d make them; the fabric, all my notions and supplies sat tucked away on a shelf where they gathered dust. I talked and planned but didn’t take scissors and thread to anything.

Finally I got down to work!!

I’ve made drapes before, but never pleated drapery. My procrastination didn’t come from a concern that I couldn’t do the job; I’m a skilled seamstress and was confident in my abilities. BUT, I’ve always been really good at visualizing any project I undertake from start to finish…and I KNEW, even before I started, that I’d have challenges.

Perhaps my largest challenge – one that haunted me each step of the way – was the fact that I had to do so much on the floor. I mean… if I had a room that was large enough to spread my fabric out maybe it wouldn’t have been so difficult. But my living room is pretty small, meaning I had to work with sections at a time. That made it so very hard to ensure that the lining AND the drapery fabric lined up.

ARGH!

But I kept at it… one part of the project at a time.

Brian created a make-shift sewing table for me so that I could watch TV and sew at the same time… I liked that! I also set up the ironing board so that I could sit down in the living room and do all the necessary pressing for the hems and pleats. It was perfect! And so much better then a sore back from standing!!

Next came the pleats!

I had purchased a special tape with pull-strings that, when sewn into the header of the drape and the strings pulled, was supposed to easily create triple pleats.

NOT!

So with a little problem-solving, I devised a way to make double-pleats on my own… well… with some math help from Brian (how far apart the pleats should be) ;-)

What did I do? I measured out each pleat to 3” (note: this is not the spacing between pleats – that depends on the width of your drapes and, as I mentioned, that’s what Brian helped me with). Pulling the 0” & 3” marks together, I sewed from the top of the header to the header’s visible stitching, making a cone (see below).

Next I pressed the cone flat – equally distributing the fabric on either side of the stitching.

From here I could easily pinch the two sides together to make my pleat!!

With needle and thread, I sewed the pleat together along the visible stitching of the panel’s header… right where you see my fingers above.

Pleats done!!

As you can imagine, I was very very happy with the way they turned out!!

I’d overcome the challenge of working on the floor… and I’d overcome the challenge of making drapery pleats. Life was good!!   

And here’s how they look hung in our dining room…

Look at that fantastic paint-cut line… no tape used, just a steady hand. I’m good. Wanna hire me? ;-) HaHaHa!!! Hey! You’re supposed to be looking at my drapery!!

I love Shasta Daisies! Before I picked them this morning though, I should have remembered that they don’t SMELL very good! HaHa! Now that my reveal photos are done and posted my lovely daisies are beautifying my front deck!!

So how long did it take me to make our lovely new drapes? Six months!!! But here’s another truth… the fabric sat on a shelf in my dining room for a whole year before I even got started!! HaHa! I’m bad ;-)

I’m sharing this project with Donna and her readers over at Funky Junk Interiors… I can’t believe it, but I conquered the “Gitter Done” challenge!! One project down, a gazillion to go ;-)

 

P.S. Somewhere in this post is a sneak peak at a FAB project that I plan to share next week… can you see it?!