Modern Panels

I promised myself that I would try to write in this every other day, but then the green death descended upon my family.  By green death, I mean snot.  I know, TMI, but I can't explain it a better way.  High fevers, snotty messes, and coughing up a lung.  I blame kindergarten germs for all these lovely illnesses we've been getting lately.  But anyway, I lost a week in there amongst the sickies.  Then I ended up sick.  Good times.

Another one of my recent projects was to create panels for someone's living and dining room.  She absolutely fell in love with some fancy schmancy fabric and came to me to get it.  I really like it too.  Here's a pic

We only could get enough fabric for her living room.  We were hoping to get more from the factory in Turkey, but that didn't happen.  The company discontinued the fabric.  Evidently, the yardage we got was the last of it.  Kinda bummed we couldn't get it all, but kinda glad that we did get some.  And I am glad we did.  They are so cool.

Here's the panels hanging in my office

Yes, I am very professional.  Ladder is still out there is a huge mess on my desk.  I'm too busy for such nonsense.  Also notice, this fabric looks way darker than the sample online.  Always order a swatch.  You just never know.
And here they are installed.



I'm partial to modern, and love these.  Even like that they have a little "bling" to them.  Note to self:  get a better camera, or learn to take a better picture for crying out loud.  I stink at that.

This fabric was a little on the thinner side, so I used a napped sateen lining.  That sort of gives you the lining and interlining all in one. 

Got a naked window in your house? Email me at b.runkel@insightbb.com and I can definitely help you out.

Buffalo Check Panels

I have a friend with amazing taste.  She is obsessed with decorator blogs and probably could look at houzz.com and tell you who did what.  I was thrilled when she asked me to make something for her.  She brought me this:

Can you believe that is IKEA fabric?  It was pretty awesome for the price, $8.99 a yard.  In decorator fabric, that is almost unheard of.  Getting enough to make four panels was another story.  After countless trips to the Cincinnati IKEA, I finally called the IKEA in Pittsburgh and they sent me all I needed.  I tried to do this again, and they said that they never ship fabric.  Thank you IKEA Pittsburgh for bending the rules, or not knowing them.  Whatever.  It was much appreciated. 

This was my first dip into the world of pleats.  We did euro pleats.  They're a little more modern than your basic pinch pleat.  You sew them together at the top instead of the bottom of your pinch.  If you ever make these, use a really good buckram.  It'll make the top stiff and hold in that pleat.  Here's a pic of the finished room:

Pretty good for my first attempt.  Installing them was a different story.  Thank goodness she's a friend.  My husband does my installs now.  He is awesome.  I couldn't even get the screws all the way into the studs.  He has big muscles so he doesn't have a problem.

Anyway, this made me love a fabric that I thought was way too country for me.  I can't wait to find a place to use this in my house.

Got a naked window in your house? Email me at b.runkel@insightbb.com and I can definitely help you out.

Project Cornice

So a friend/client asked me to make something to go over her kitchen window. She wanted something that was functional and could block out the blinding afternoon soon while doing dishes. I said' "Well that's easy, have your husband do the dishes." I don't do dishes at our house. If it can't go in the dishwasher, it has no place in our household. But I guess he wanted something to block the light out too, so we came up with a cornice across the top and a roman shade to block out the light.

I've made cornices before, but just rectangular ones. I've never made a scalloped one. We used 1x6's for the frame and OSB for the face. For the scalloped pattern, it pays to have friends that are graphic designers. I showed her a picture of what I wanted, told her my measurements, and she made me a template. We emailed the file to Kinkos and they printed it out on huge paper. It made life to easy. I drew the pattern onto the board, then cut it out with a jigsaw. Here's what it looked like before I covered it:

I then threw some cornice board padding onto it, covered it with fabric, and surprised myself. Here it is finished:

I love the way it came out. It's amazing what a little fabric can do.  She was thrilled with it which is why I started doing this.
 
Got a naked window in your house?  Email me at b.runkel@insightbb.com and I can definitely help you out.

It's about time

I have been threatening to do this for a while.  But then life happened and it totally got pushed aside.  Now  I am ready.  So here goes.....A couple of years ago, after a few beers I'll admit, I decided to start a business.  I was going to sew kitchen aprons.  Did I know how to sew?  Kinda.  Did I own a sewing machine?  I thought I did.  (These were all questions my husband asked).  When he came home from his business trip, I had taken over the dining room.  A few weeks later, the guest bedroom was gone.  Now the basement is being taken over.  It's no longer aprons though.  It has now turned into custom window treatments ( who knew).  I am constantly scouring blogs online trying to figure things out and get as much information as I can about sewing and small business, I thought I better start contributing.  Maybe you'll learn something and not make some of the same mistakes I have made.  People always ask me how I make the things I do.  I always tell them that I read constantly and they could totally do this too.