Family Room Curtains.... Finally.

My family room bow window has been nekkid since christmas for a little while. While my Mum was here over winter we took down the boring Ikea curtains, washed them and then they sat folded in my sewing room forever, waiting to be rejuvenated.  

I  love to re-purpose, so when we moved in to our house and the previous owners had left some boring adequate Ikea curtains behind, I decided I would keep them until I found something I liked better.

This is what the curtains used to look like:

...and now:

Don't mind Kevin's lap top in the corner, he looked comfy on the couch so I didn't want to move him...

Yes, curtains, not too exciting, I know. I am happy with them because I was able to re-purpose something FREE in to something pretty, and remember my fabric from my post back in february? There is the green and gold stripe in all it's glory. Green is not my favorite colour, but, it is a close third and it goes with the room.. plus it only cost me about 8$ for the transformation.

I made tie-backs to match, I also bought some plain green of the same fabric, and good thing I did because I used everything but a 8"x12" piece of the valance fabric... and I wanted wide tie-backs.

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So here is a brief "How To" 

(I don't want to insult anyones intelligence)

For an 11' span, I used 4 standard size Ikea curtain panels, and sewed 2 of them together for each side of the window. I had 2 meters of of valance fabric (you will need the same amount of lining) and another 1/4 meter  of a coordinating (or of the same fabric if you like) for the tie backs.

Here is the underside of the valance, I lined them with a thin and cheap polyester, just to give stability.

 As you can see above, I have a wooden dowel as a curtain rod, mainly because its an 11' span and I couldn't find a long enough curtain rod or one stable enough not to bow in the middle.

I really didn't want to have to hang 2 dowels just to have a valance, and I didn't make the curtains in the rod pocket style because the rod holders would make the curtain hang funny.

My solution was to attach the valance to the curtains as is.

Take your finished valance  and face good side of valance to the back side (side toward the window) of the curtain and sew a straight stitch along and it will look like the picture above....

When you put up your curtains flip the valance over to the front and it will be nice and finished looking.

 ...the back of the curtains still look like that...

Now you have your valance attached... easy as can be.

So pretty and shiny....

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Below is a picture my Mum took of the old windows... it was kind of a surprise, the boys changed the windows while I was at work so I only have mid-reno photos. We used to have 3 windows on the left, we filled in the side window (it looked at our neighbors anyway) and made a bigger hole for the new bow window.

...much better now, I think.
I love my Bow window, Kevin along with my Dad and his Dad, installed the windows last year, and the bow window was a mis-size so it was practically free for us. Another one of my favorite windows in the house, you can lay on the couch and watch the world go by.

Another project down, 9 million more to go.

 Happy Sewing!
-Courtney Soleil

Chaise Lounge cover

Yesterday we talked about the Snazzy Dog Bed I made, now what to do about cleaning my couch and keeping it nice? The dogs love their bed but in getting used to it, they briefly sneak up on to the couch and most often the chaise lounge.
My initial solution was to steam clean my couch - well, I am cheap  economical, and paying 200$ to have my couch steam cleaned every so often was not an option. Then I thought I will just vacuum it really well and often - not happening, I work full time and I have a hard time keeping my house in order as it is. I DO vacuum my couch as often as I can though, Kevin bought me the most beautiful vacuum (I love my Dyson) which does make it easier. But vacuuming alone didn't get it thoroughly clean - since I love to live dangerously I actually removed my cushion covers and WASHED them, in the WASHING MACHINE - I know, I'm sure you are cringing this very moment - they came out like new, maybe better than new, and they smell soooo good.  Nearly all the cushion covers can be removed, except the chaise lounge bottom, so my solution:

A Cover!

I had a old vintage bed spread my Mum had given me ages ago, the very first one she ever bought actually. I love the texture and the cream colour - usually I have cream curtains so the match it perfect.

 ...unfortunately it had huge holes all along one end and was very frayed from time and use. I have always loved it and used it to cover another couch prior, but it really looked rough. I took the better side of the bed spread and laid it on my chaise lounge pinned where it need to be cut or stitched and made a custom cover - it doesn't shift and it is so soft and easy to wash. I made a couple throw pillows to tie it in and voila!

I am blogging from that very spot right now!

Happy Sewing!

-Courtney Soleil

Snazziest Dog Bed... Ever

I have been trying to kick my pooches off our beautiful family room couch for eons, nothing seemed to work.  I tried putting throw pillows everywhere so they couldn't lay comfortably and would be forced to go to their beds in the basement - not happening - they figured out they could nose the pillows on to the floor or snuggle in between them (which they liked EVEN BETTER!).  I tried locking them in their basement room, dudley ate through the door.... seriously. We replaced the door with a new one, but they can still get out... I do like having them roam the house freely, I feel safer that way - They alert us to intruders and any passing sinister looking cats or squirrels (Dudley is convinced they are evil... who are we to disagree?). The  dogs have earned their "right" to roam the house - they never have accidents anymore, they let us know when they have to  go out, they don't chew or destroy anything and they don't make a sound (except Dudley does snore...), so why not let them protect the house? Well, my poor sanity couch is suffering.

I love my furry babies, I really really really do, but I really really really love my couch too. Kevin and I bought this couch when we moved in, and I still haven't seen one I like as much. It's over stuffed and soft and light coloured.... it's pretty much perfect in every way - except for the fact it's covered in dog hair the majority of the time and it shows the dirt. Clearly my pups like to be upstairs closer to us, and close to the front door so here was my last attempt at saving my couch for doggy destruction:

A Snazzy Dog Bed

I love the colour, it actually looks way more green in person, goes really well with the walls and the green from the throw pillows from my couch (see my couch subtly sneaking in the side of the picture?)

Fabricland had a sale on all their upholstery fabric, and this fabric was very similar feel to my couch (which the dogs love) and it doesn't show the fur - super easy to wash and vacuum. Here's a close up, both really super soft chenille, just different patterns: 

Couch                                            Dog Bed

HOW TO:

To make the dog bed, you need about 4 meters of upholstery fabric (for those that work in yards, a meter is roughly 40" wide). I made this like a pillowcase (very very simple) and did a zipper closure at one end.

Finished mine ended up 40"x60" and it fits 2 large breed dogs perfectly (for me it filled a void of space beside my stairs too)

I bought a twin duvet from Walmart (included pillows) for 15$ on sale and used it as the soft center - you could use fiber fill or batting or foam, but this was cheap and available.  I actually forgot to buy a zipper so I took the zipper off the quilt bag:

Worked GREAT!

Hey I think I just took cheap to a new level - I even kept the clear vinyl bag to make I-spy bags in the future. 

The furry babies seem to really like their new bed! 

Now what to do about cleaning my couch?

More on that tomorrow!

Happy Sewing!

-Courtney Soleil

Family Room Makeover Project.....

After much ridiculousness and a really long time in Fabricland trying to decide on "the perfect fabric" for my living room, here is what my Mum and I finally decided on:

The bottom one is for throw pillows for my sectional couch (it matches really well, adds texture!) and the middle one is to add a valance and tie backs to my boring cream ikea curtains (they were left here by the previous owners, and well I can't pass up free...). On top is just a cheap fabric to use as a lining for the valance, but I kinda like it! Mum and I have been getting amazing deals on fabric lately, the pillow fabric was on for buy 1 get 3 free (worked out to around 3$ a meter), and the valance fabric was buy 1 get 2 free (worked out to about 4$ a meter)... I can't remember what the lining was on for.... but it was even cheaper - we even got the pillow forms buy one get one free.
The colours go really well with my family room, the sectional is a cream chenille with a hue of green to it, and the throw pillows that came with it have the same colour as the sectional and then a goldish colour, grey-green and goldy green, very much the colours of both above fabrics. I have a cream and light grey area rug, cream curtains, green walls (just a couple shades lighter than the valance fabric) and a beautiful fireplace. Though I always prefer silver or pewter over gold fixtures, the fireplace has gold trim and we got a free table set thats gold and pewter and a tall spider lamp in gold - I can't get away from it. Oddly enough, with having a greyish green colour in the couch and grey in the rug, and a few pewter accents - like on the table and a fire poker set, gold and pewter are getting along.
I promise when it is all finished I will post pics of the whole room too - as long as it doesn't all go horribly wrong... ( ha ha ha?).
I am also working on tons of other projects, and I still have a ton more fabric pics to post, like I mentioned further up, Mum and I got some great fabric deals.... can you say remnant bin? One deal we got was buy 1 get 5 free from the remnant/bolt ends bin, and most pieces were over a meter, such a variety too, I can't sew them fast enough - I am literally running out of space to keep them all!

I will update with more soon, promise!

Happy Sewing!

-Courtney Soleil