"BED CURTAINS" a tutorial

 The scene is set with a party of three gritty scavengers, one man (the undertaker), and two grubby women; one's an old laundress and the other the bold, brassy former housekeeper of the Late Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge.  They are pawning the items they stole upon his recent death.  The undertaker and the laundress, have already been speedily short-changed by Joe, the crafty and knowing pawn broker and it only awaits the house keeper's turn to show him what she has been excitedly saving in her stash ....

                                                      "Now open MY bundle, Joe!"

"Come on, what is it?"

                                            "BED CURTAINS!"

"bed curtains??"

                                                     "Ah hah, BED CURTAINS!"

"But you.... you mean to say, that you took these down, rings and all, and with him, ... lyin there?!!! "

                                          
                                                      "Yes I do!  Why Not!!?

"You were born to make a fortune ma'm, and you Certainly Will.....! ...

                                                                                *****           

Now you may just be wondering why I opened with that bit of dialogue from the movie, " Scrooge"( A Christmas Carol) written by Charles Dickens in 1843 and staring Alastair Sim in 1951, 
( whom I consider to be the Very Best Mr. Scrooge- EVER!)  Well, when I was thinking of a title for this post, I was going to just call it "How I made the curtains"....Then, one thing led to another and it was all finally condensed down to just 'Bed Curtains', and then
( don'tcha know) the movie sorta popped into my head ( because that is how my mind works). Now I shall show you how I got busy and got to work making them. 

 So without further ado, I present to you....     

                                              "BED CURTAINS"                                                                                     

This is the fabric I made the bed curtains from
It is a 100% cotton quilting fabric that has a toile print.

For these curtains I wanted to lightly stain the fabric so I wet it down with water

I squeezed out the excess

I put in a microwaveable dish with some old coffee

I made sure that it was all coffeed up and cooked it for about a minute in the microwave

I rinsed it with clear water and squeezed it out again really well
If it is not dark enough then you can repeat the process as many times as necessary until the desired amount of stain is achieved but make sure you have enough coffee in the dish to cover the wet fabric.

I opened the fabric out and added gel glue!

I have used this glue on other similar fabric projects and I love it because it is so easy to distribute throughout the wet fabric. 
 I have not tried this with any other glue so I couldn't say how they would work,
but this stuff is available almost everywhere and it is cheap and easy!

I made another panel for this tutorial, so that I would have enough photos ( a la' Susan) so that is why this fabric is a different color.  I used about a teaspoon of the gel glue but it would depend on the amount fabric that you were using. 
 I mushed the glue all through the damp fabric so that it was evenly distributed. 

 It is sticky but not gummy!  If you think that you have too much then rinse it out and try again.

Mix and mush and mix and mush...
etc. ect. ect.

Now smooth the fabric out face down and cut off the loose threads

Fold up a hem.  The fabric should fold and stick to itself easily but if it doesn't want to stay, then lightly apply a tiny bit of gel glue to the hem and smooth it out with your finger! 
and then finger press the hem to get a sharp crease.
( Good to have some wet wipes handy ) 

This is the damp, gluey cloth with the hem turned up, {note to self: }
There is more water than glue in this fabric.  What you see above is a damp wet cloth 
lightly saturated with glue.

Turn you fabric over to face up

TOOLS OF THE TRADE
***
This is a PRETTY PLEATER that I have had for nearly 20 years!  Pleaters are made of a dense rubber and they make Very Rigid and UNnatural Pleats IF you use it the way that most people do.  The package orginally came with a tiny plastic credit card-sized 'doom-a-hicky' but it is a waste of time to use as it is way too small for the length of most drapes.  That is why you see the long plastic ruler but Anything Non Stick that you can hold and lift, and that is narrow enough to insert between the grooves, will do! 
It has to be long enough to hold down the entire length of the fabric that you will be pleating

Make sure that your fabric is facing upward
and lay evenly over the surface of the pleater.
 Now some of you may be use to pinning your pleats and I suppose that this wet cotton and glue solution could work for that too,
 but 
I am showing what I did to get the results that I photographed for my curtained bed,
 SO, do with this tutorial, what you will. :)
***
Anyhoo, to continue....

I used the long plastic ruler to inset the first fold into the grooves of the pleater and I held it there and used the shorter metal ruler to push the second pleat in, by sliding the ruler down the length of the fabric till I got to the end. 

Close ups

Every time I moved the longer ruler over it is to hold the fabric in the grove while the smaller ruler slides into the groove beside it.  Because the fabric is lightly saturated with the  water and the gel glue, it cooperates and stays put.  
DO NOT USE EVERY SINGLE GROOVE FOR THE PLEATS!
if you want them to look natural,
 then vary the spacings ie. a few narrow ones, wide then narrow, then go over for 2 etc. and mix it up!
 as you can see from the photo above.  

This is the curtain panel all done.  You can see how the pleats are both wide and narrow in both the top photo and the one below.
If the hem is crooked then STRAIGHTEN IT UP
I used the small ruler to push the hem up on the fabric pictured below that is why it is wrinkled at the hem, make adjustments by manipulating until it looks the way that you want it to look when dry.  
What you see becomes what you will get. 

 Next is the blow dryer's turn!
I set it for 'HIGH' and hold the fabric down with the ruler 

BEFORE they are totally set and whilst still a bit damp, you will need to begin to manipulate the hem.
To make them look like they are falling naturally, gently lift the bottom hem of the drape up and away from the rubber mat.  It will give the hem a more natural look as it dries!

I make slight adjustments as I apply the heat.
 Make sure that you have anchored the top of the curtain as you dry it or it could become a FLYING CARPET! 
Soften the folds from the bottom hem as they are setting up.  The gel glue makes this easy and fun to do!

These look pretty wrinkled but they are actually look perfectly fine once they are hung.
Trust me on this.  This fabric relaxed at bit once it was lifted off of the rubber pleater.

To make the Bed Curtains Heavier, I just folded the ends in towards the middle and saw how much needed to be shaved off the ends to clean them up, removed any loose threads, to get the width that I required.

Then I trimmed the pleats off to where I needed. 
If I wanted to make TWO PANELS, then I would trim the edge of the fabric as straight as I could with a fold turning inward.  THEN I WOULD CUT THE FABIC PANEL INTO TWO EQUAL PARTS LEAVING ENOUGH WIDTH IN WHICH TO MAKE A long HEM for BOTH SIDES OF EACH LENGTH which you would secure with a tacky or fabric glue.
(that was how I made the window curtains for the bedroom ) Trims could also be added to the inside edge but I wanted these plain so I didn't do that, instead
I doubled the fabric over towards the centre and secured with a tacky glue to keep the folds in place.
Tacky glue should be used sparingly
  The fabric is stiff but still pliable and soft in both appearance and to the touch.  Very easy to work with!
Below you can see an example of a narrow edge hem along the length of the drape
 or you can make a heavier drape by doubling the curtain up
YOUR CHOICE

The finished panel 

You see they do not look stiff or wrinkly at all!
The drop of the drape looks very soft and real 

HOLD ON..

..."Now open my bundle, Joe!'

                                     "Come on ,what's in it? 

                                                  "A SHOWER CURTAIN!"                                                                                                                                                        

"A shower curtain???"
Swweeeet!


(to be continued)
*****

elizabeth 

A LOFTY IDEA! ( revised bedroom of #43 Green Dolphin Street)

"Good, Better, Best.

Never let them rest, until your Good is Better,

and your better 

Best!"

When I was in grade 5, this motto was posted across the top of the classroom wall.

simple words to live by

***

I had an idea with regard to the bedroom of #43.  I wanted to make it Better.

Through trails and errors, this is the ( newest) final result.

I HAVE INSTALLED A LOFT!
 And sitting inside the loft is a large tin of English biscuits that JANINE of MINWORKS brought over for me, last Wednesday when she and Fats and I had lunch together and then 'Minied our Minds Out', exchanged gifts, ideas and lots and lots of laughter.  We 3 Miniteers, have So Much Fun when we get together, and I will have to show you more of what they both gifted me with on a later posting, but for now I have Janine's  biscuit tin next to a hat box of mine...  But wait!
 I am getting waaaay ahead of myself.  Let me take you back to the beginning.
  It all began with the Ugly wood beam that I installed on the bedroom wall...

I had placed this beam on the bedroom wall and then heartily disliked it!  I had installed it because it corresponded to the one glued onto the opposite side of the wall, in the hallway.  I had wanted to break up the strong blank vertical wall in the stairwell, with a horizontal beam and so to be consistent I had to duplicate it in the bedroom, but now I was Not Happy :(   The dark beam was too visible, even when the bed was in front of it, I wanted to reverse the whole procedure but it was, by then, too late!  I was now reluctantly committed to the 'Ugly!'  In trying to come up with a variety of solutions to make me like the bedroom again, I began to play with some toile material that was going to be used for a shower and window curtains in the bathroom.  Hmmmm?  If I could find a way to incorporate the curtain fabric to detract from the ugly beam then maybe I could live with it.  I started to play around with the drapes and then the idea of A LOFT, hit me as a possibility!  But how to do it..... ?  It would need to be anchored to the ceiling without looking like a death trap!  I had to mock it up to see.  I tried so many different solutions and combinations struggling to work out the physical problem.  I am miserable at math and anything that requires calculations, so EVERYthing was all by "trying this, and then, trying that".  The problem of how to suspend the loft in a Solid, Reasonable and Logical way was very difficult for me.  I had to build it in place and then to think of what step I should take next to get over the following hurdle.

I mocked it up to see if what I had envisioned, would even Look any good, then
 I used some paper to see just what it Would look like with a lowered canopy over the bed

I liked the effect.
 But how could I get it to work?

Here with the bathroom in progress, was another possible way of supporting the loft over the bed.  I have a thin beam stretching from one side of the room to the other, but visually, it was totally unacceptable.  I didn't like the way the top of the room was sliced off.  So back to the drawing board trying to figure out how to keep that loft UP!

Meanwhile, I decided to make some more curtains.  I was also looking to see how best to make a valance.  By this stage I was out of the toile fabric and so this meant
No Mistakes were Allowed
( sorry about the fuzzy photo)

 And after much doing and redoing, this is the final result!  I found that if I made a solid wall to stretch from the platform of the loft up to the ceiling, then I could trim it out with additional wood to make it appear  as though it was a solid part of the architecture rather than a flimsy 'add on'.  I dropped the curtain panels to the floor from the underside of the valance and made them denser and more substantial by doubling the curtain  over so that the pattern is on both the front  and back of the panels.  The visual weight of the curtains help support the idea of a structurally sound loft above the bed.  I am so relieved to have the canopy and the loft done!  The additional heavier drapes have added even more ambience to the room
 And I am LOVIN IT!

 But, then, when I took this shot, a bell went off in my head
'Hey, I've seen this somewhere before!'
 Then I remembered....
Pinned onto my INSPIRATION BOARD that is on my studio wall, I have a tear sheet of a bedroom that I love.
(see below)

Uncanny!  I didn't realize how much it looked like this picture until I was done!
I guess this photo Really WAS Inspiring! :D

#43 Green Dolphin Street
My revised miniature bedroom! 

  I love the variations of the shapes, spaces and textures.  A future project will include a small ladder which will be kept under the bed for reaching those items stowed up in the loft

I didn't want a solid floor to the loft area, but something that appears visually lighter so I made a plank floor to support the contents in the loft and stained the wood dark, to compliment the other wood trims in the room.  In the pictures you can see what it looks like from the underside.  I LOVE IT!  It reminds me of a berth of a sailing ship and because of that, it then ties in with the voyage that Marianne made
 ( in the book, Green Dolphin Street ) across the Atlantic to marry William in New Zealand!  A little Nautical reference after all!  (whoohoo! )Things are looking Better and Better all the time!

I was showing my sister Bev, the changes to the bedroom and she commented that now the room looks finished, and there is some privacy for anyone sleeping in the bed and I agree!  Also there is some added warmth during those wet and blustery nights when the wind rattles the old window panes and creeps through any cracks in the uninsulated stone walls.  The thickness of those bed curtains, should ward off Some of the chill that blows through on those cold coastal nights!

ahhh,
Nice and Cosy!

I also gave a little 'face lift' for the standing mirror on the painted chest of drawers.
 I added a filigree frame around it, to fussy it up!

So This is now what it looks like with all the items  in place

 And here is the entire room with the new bed curtains and also showing the stairwell 

And this is the view looking to the left!  I love this shot!
it reminds me of the motion of a boat the way it seems to be leaning left, 
weird huh?

So what do you think of my Lofty Idea?
I have really tried to make what was good about this room look even better!
And now I  think that I like it
The Best!
 ( perhaps even More than the Parlor? )
and speaking of the Parlor; look what Fats made for me when she came over last Wednesday

A MINI BOOK OF
GREEN DOLPHIN STREET!

My two friends, are by far

The VERY Best!
Thanks for the visit

elizabeth