New home means new projects

our new home

My husband and I bought a new home in Michigan, where we will move next summer. We were fortunate enough to have time to stay in that house for a week and enjoy the lake and the cooler weather while here in Missouri the heat melted all our friends and family.

I had taken measurements, and wanted curtains over the windows in the sunny lakeside room. The previous owner had white walls and no window treatments. I’ve sewn before with sheer material, and I’ve sewn large pieces of fabric, but not large pieces of sheer fabric. It slips off the table so easily, I had to weigh it down with anything handy. I finally managed to get hems in the sides and bottoms of the panels, and they are fairly straight.

As a self-taught novice, I hadn’t known about drapery header. It is stiff like firm interfacing, the one I bought was 3 inches wide and comes on a roll. I used it at the top edge of the curtain panels so they wouldn’t droop between curtain rings. I do love the look of the room now!

windows before

windows after

The sheer fabric will allow plenty of light to come in. If they happen to be pulled across open windows, the slightest breeze will push them aside to allow for air movement. We plan to have them open mostly, and be a decorative element in the new house.

Sewing for windows

My son recently bought a new house and the previous owners took all the good window coverings with them. That left a 20-something single man needing to cover some bare windows. He has lived without on some windows, and made do on others, until good old Mom could show up with a portable Singer sewing machine.

First, of course, we had to talk about what kind of coverings he might want. Since I knew I couldn’t cover every window, I had to know which were priorities. As far as design, color, and style, he said I could decorate as I wanted to.

I forgot to mention that his house is a 6-hour drive away from mine!

I showed up with all my paraphernalia and set to work measuring windows. I shopped for a while to see A) where all the fabric stores were located and B) what might be available. I talked over my ideas with my son and figured out, in the time I had, I could cover the two windows he requested, plus two more.

First I made Roman shades for his bedroom. That was the fabric I found first, that I liked. It’s a black faux suede with an embossed viny leaf design.

The next day I was out shopping again, this time to finalize the purchase of any hardware and supplies I needed, and to find the rest of the fabric that I couldn’t find before. I scoured the same fabric stores again, widened my search horizon, and was able to find what I was looking for.

The next windows I sewed for were the kitchen window and the patio slider. He needed something that would not block the light but would reduce the heat from the sun. These sheers with a plaid white-on-white design worked very well. By hanging with cafe rings, he can easily slide it aside to go in and out the door.

The final window was the living room window facing the street. The problem with it is that the sun would shine in, bounce off a couple of walls, and make it miserable for watching television. More Roman shades would do the trick there. The valance happened because removing the black curtain rod would leave holes to patch and touch up with paint, and it was just simpler to make a valance.

If I had it to do over, I would use a dark fabric to back it, but I didn’t want it to absorb heat from the sun. A close up shows the metallic floral design which goes very well with the two different paint finishes on different walls.

Overall, it was a very productive few days sewing for my son, and he’s thrilled with the results.

I start back to school on Monday, and have sewn 48 days this summer during my time off.  I have one day left, so I know I won’t complete my 50-day challenge, but missing it by only one day is pretty darn good. I’m still proud of all that I’ve accomplished this summer.