A bit of a mistake...

Well, the curtain making was all going swimmingly. I was actually starting to enjoy myself and I was feeling very smug about how far my curtain making skills had come. The first curtains I made were the ones I was replacing in my brothers kitchen and they were basically made like you would make a cushion cover; front sewn to back (lining) and tape at the top. That was fifteen years ago.

Now I make them properly, lined with thermal lining to add a luxurious look and do it by the book. I was finding it so easy with the checked fabric I thought that perhaps I should start a curtain making business using only checked fabrics. The Checked Curtain Company. Measure once and follow the line.

Then I realised I had totally stuffed it up.

You see here how the pair of curtains are completely aligned and the rows of colours are mirror images?

That's how they should have been.

Here's what I did.

The fabric has been flipped upside down (how!?) and the orange rows match but the yellows are off. Doh!
Fortunately my brother, being male, will neither expect them to mirror each other, nor notice that they don't.

And luckily, once hung and opened...

..the mistake is less obvious.
But I am cross with myself and no longer want a Checked Curtain Company. It's fraught with danger.

The other window with the single curtain is fine!

Perhaps I shall start The Single Curtain Company.

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It's curtains I'm afraid...

I suddenly realised it's half term next week and I was meant to have made some curtains to take up to York for my brothers kitchen. Gah! I hate making curtains. The maths makes my head spin.
Here's the fabric I chose.

The floor still makes my heart skip a beat :)

Very colourful. I'm hoping they will tie in with his kitchen that he replaced last year.
The straight lines are very helpful for cutting. I've done one curtain and there are two more to go...

Do you see our curtains in the background? They are Laura Ashley (via ebay) and have had the hems pinned up since we got them. My excuse was, I didn't know where the flooring would come to, so I couldn't shorten them. Well, the flooring is done so I have no excuses left now.
They're coming down and being washed and shortened from the top so I don't have to faff about with the hems on the curtains and the linings. Tedious job. But not as tedious as making them from scratch.

I'm also thinking ahead to the dining room makeover that's on the horizon. We have some electrical work to do first, then more wood flooring to go down and then I can sort that room out. I've got some cream curtains stashed away and I'm thinking of replacing the pencil pleat curtain tape with this:

Sorry this is a truly awful picture

Smocked curtain tape! Isn't that pretty? I have to figure out if it's right for the curtains I have; I read that it's best for lightweight curtains and mine aren't. And I'm hoping it's easy to use...

Also thinking ahead to the dining room, I would love this:

  

French style furniture. But my husband says no. We are sticking with chunky pine but painted. It'll work with what we've got, which is a large pine bookcase/ dresser that will be painted. I did replace that with a french style dresser that I painted but I couldn't get half as much in it so it had to go. It was 99p from ebay but my books didn't fit into it as it was more of a display cabinet.

The french one

So that bit the dust. The pine one came back in.

 A bit of primer adhesion experimentation has occurred...

We also have:

...but with grungier legs and a paler top, but it's too long for the room (we were going to take a wall down but not anymore) so I've been tracking down a shorter one.
It's a bit ridiculous, the amount of furniture that passes through this house. We moved in with 3 tables, one is now in the garden and two were sold. We bought another, decided not to keep it, bought another (the one we have now that's too big) and last week bought a smaller one that's too small. You'd think we don't know how to use a tape measure! I think I'm guilty of repeatedly finding something lovely at a bargainous price on ebay and convincing myself it will be fine. When it's not.

I want to get it right and have furniture that fits the room (it's not big) and is worthy of the new flooring! Thank goodness for ebay. It means a mistake is not a costly mistake! Luckily it's all secondhand in the first place so I'm not losing money.

I'm also thinking of a plate rack like this in the dining room.

 I have some pretty plates just waiting.

Seeing as we're drowning in tables and chairs at the moment, and everything has stopped for curtain making, I've done nothing more with my Ikea step stool. Sorry.

Perhaps after we return from Yorkshire for half term? I'll take my camera so I can show you my brothers curtains in situ.
IF I finish them.

Happy half term!

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