Making the Most of Fabric Remnants

Custom window treatments can be pricey.  Even making your own can add up when you tend to like expensive fabric, like me!  I don't think I've ever purchased decorator fabric at full price, because you can always wait for a sale, a coupon, or my favorite:  shop fabric outlets.  If you don't have a specific fabric in mind, but you know what color scheme you want, fabric outlet shopping is for you.  I thought I would share with you a few tips on how I choose fabric remnants and how to make the most out of them. 

1. Look through every remnant at the store.  This can be time-consuming, but it's great for inspiration, sometimes the fabrics get mixed up (our store has them sorted by color, but there's usually at least one in the wrong spot), and you might change your mind on the colors when you spot something great. 

2. Have a general idea of how you will use the fabric.  I don't follow the rule that I need to know exactly what the fabric will be for, but I try not to buy big pieces of remnant fabrics that might just sit in my closet forever.  

3. Know basic fabric requirements for sewing projects.  This is important because you might find a great remnant but it's only 2 yards and you want to use it for a duvet cover.  Sorry, but that won't be enough!  You can usually google 'fabric requirement for _______' and some great sites will come up with your answer.  Most of the time the fabric outlet will also have a chart in the store that you can use, so be sure to ask them if you get stuck.  

4. Be willing to purchase additional fabric from another retailer if you need more.  You're still saving money in the end if only some of your fabric is purchased as a remnant.  I ended up doing this with the drapes in my dining room, which you can read about here.  

5. Look at the yardage amount on the remnant piece, and even open it up to check for its validity.  Usually each piece will be marked correctly, but what you may not know from that marking is the width of the fabric.  

I made this last mistake when I purchased some gorgeous P. Kaufmann fabric for $4/yard.  It looked like I was getting a total of 5 yards, but one was actually less than had been marked.  When I finally decided that I wanted to use this fabric for drapes, there wasn't enough.  So, what to do?  

I decided to make up my own type of drapery panel (which is the main point of this post).  Using the color swatch on the fabric,

I chose a neutral color and purchased linen apparel fabric from Joann's, enough to add to my main fabric so that I could make two drapery panels.  My first attempt to create my own drape turned out pretty bad (that was pre-blogging, so I don't have a picture); in fact, my husband and mother-in-law said it looked like I had made a mistake.  I'm so grateful for honest input!  So, my mother-in-law helped me to think through it a bit more and come up with a plan that would work.  This is how they ended up:

I'm really pleased with them and I love the fact that it's designer fabric, which retails for $26/yard, the colors are perfect in this room, and we designed them!  Thanks, Mom!

Do you have any remnant fabrics laying around?  What do you plan to do with them?  I'd love to hear!

Faux Roman Shades for the Kitchen

Does anyone else have a difficult time treating windows?  And by treating, I mean window treatments, not cleaning or preparing for the elements.  Making this decision is always a long process for me for several reasons:

1. They need to look good.
2. Spending a lot of money is not an option.
3. DIY is a preference.
4. Easy is better.

Meeting all of this criteria can be a challenge, specifically for someone as fickle as me in my decorating choices!  Oh, to be able to take the time to go back to school for some interior design classes...

My kitchen opens up right to the family room, so my choices in there needed to coordinate/flow with the choices I made in the family room. (You can read about  my family room drapes here). The kitchen was my first project, so I started with picking fabric.  After perusing the fabric outlet in town, the internet, and finally Joann's, I decided on this gorgeous fabric:

One of the colors in the pattern matches perfectly the color that we chose for paint (you can read about my paint choices here), which is why we chose that paint color!  I love the linen background and the floral pattern.  Plus, the pattern has the blues and greens which I wanted to keep going throughout the downstairs of our home.

After choosing the fabric, the next step was determining how to use it.  I knew that I wanted a top treatment, not something that would hang to the floor, for the kitchen.  There are a ton of patterns out there for valances and other top-treatments, but nothing really caught my eye.  What was left?  Roman Shades.  Ugh!  I have always loved the look of these, but the thought of actually making one terrified me!  But, this was the only thing I liked, so I had to do it.  I decided on the 'faux' kind, simply because it used less fabric (economical-meets the criteria).

I waited for a big sale at Joann's, and then purchased my fabric and supplies.  I became more terrified as the ladies were cutting my fabric and cording for the shades when they started bombarding me with tips on how to make sure the shades were perfect, saying things like, "If you don't line everything up perfectly your shade will open crooked and won't look right".  I finally told them to stop because I thought for sure I'd never be able to make it work!

Thankfully, I used a pattern for these, but I've also seen some great tutorials in blogland for making Roman Shades, in case you don't want to spend the money on a pattern.  (Just google 'tutorial for Roman Shades').

I think I literally sat for 4 hours reading the pattern trying to decipher what the directions were telling me to do.  Am I the only one who has this trouble with patterns?  Finally, it clicked and I dove in.  Once I started it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, just some simple seam-sewing.  The challenging part was measuring the placement for the rings (where the cord would hang) and rigging the cord.  My mom happened to be in town the weekend after I had sewn the shades, so she graciously assisted me in this process, since she had done it before.

I love the way they turned out and I really like having this style in the kitchen.  It keeps it open, fairly casual, but still dressed nicely.

Now, since we have neighbors in the back, blinds will be a necessity!  Maybe we'll get those up this weekend...

The Look of Linen for Less

Linen is my absolute favorite textile, both in home decor and fashion.  Linen pants are super comfortable and somehow I always feel thinner when I wear them.  And, regardless of what fabric store I'm shopping in, I always pick up linen fabrics first, whether I plan on it or not.  Although linen is classic and beautiful, it also comes with a high price tag.  Most linen fabrics, even linen blend fabrics, are over $20 a yard, if not much more.  I decided to find an alternative to spending this much money but still have something that looked similar to linen.

Look at this fabric:

Now, look at this one:

Which one is real linen?  It's hard to tell, isn't it?  The second is the non-linen, which I used for drapery panels in the Family Room.  My original plan was to go with burlap drapes, which I had seen in a Ballard Designs catalog, something like these

source

But, my daughter broke out with a rash when she touched it, so that was a no go.  I searched the internet for alternatives, because I really just wanted a plain, neutral colored fabric, with no pattern on it.  Muslin was recommended for drapes, but it was a bit too lightweight for me.

I browsed through the utility fabric section at Joann's one day and discovered Osnaburg (I think that's what it's called).  It's a Roc Ion fabric, and it only costs $3.99/yard.  This was perfect!  It had the textured look of linen, the neutral color I was looking for, and with my coupon that week I only had to pay (wait a minute while I get out my calculator...) $2.40/yard.  When you need to purchase 15 yards, this is a great deal!

These panels were easy to make.  Because I hate cutting fabric, as mentioned in my Easy Drapery Panels post, I made each panel as wide as the fabric so I only had to cut it the length that I needed.  I sewed a small hem down the side of each panel, made a rod pocket at the top, and then used stitch witchery (actually my mom did this part for me) to make the hem.

I love that the sunlight comes in through the fabric, they hang nicely, the wind blows them just right when the windows are open, and they are the simple drapes I wanted.

You don't have to spend a lot of money on fabric.  Be creative and utilize other fabrics to get what you want while being a frugal, yet tasteful, decorator.

Linking to:

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Easy Drapery Panels

The window treatments for every room in the downstairs of our home are now hanging and I am thrilled!  Two adjustments need to be made, but I'm happy to say that it's coming together.  And, now that we have neighbors, I have to add some mini-blinds to the kitchen, so hopefully we'll be getting those this week.

Drapes are my absolute favorite window treatments, so with the exception of faux roman shades in the kitchen, every room downstairs has some form of drapery panels.  (I'll be sharing the others with you soon).  The Dining Room, as you probably know, has been my big project, of late, and Friday night, literally 10 minutes before our dinner guests arrived, my husband hung the drapes.  I went back and forth on the fabric choice, but ended up with a Waverly pattern that I love.  Our fabric outlet in town had one remnant piece that was a little less than 3 yards, so I did have to order another cut, but I still saved a ton of money (I even found some blackout lining--pre-hemmed--for $1/yard, so I snatched up everything they had) and I'm really pleased with how they turned out.

I like to be able to fit the vacuum cleaner under my drapes without having to push them to the side.

Because drapery panels are my favorite, I thought I would do a semi-tutorial on how to make them.  I guess you could call these 'lazy girl' drapery panels.  There are more sophisticated ways to make drapes, but these are just your plain old simple ones that require minimal cutting and simple hardware.  You see, no matter how hard I try, cutting a straight line is just really complicated for me, so the less cutting involved, the better!  Plus, having two little ones running around demands sewing projects that take up as little brain power as possible (I'm a novice with the sewing machine).

First, measure your windows and determine the finished length of your drapes (i.e. distance from where it will hang on the hardware to where you want it to fall on or near the ground).  To that finished length, add 8 inches for a 2-inch bottom hem, or 10 inches for a 3-inch bottom hem.   Cut the fabric to this length.

Next, determine the finished width of your panel, and add 3 inches to that measurement.  Cut the fabric to this size.

*My dining room window is actually two windows that are separated by a 4-inch strip of dry-wall.  I'm not really sure why they did it this way, but I decided to treat it as if it was one window.  Since I absolutely hate cutting fabric, I made my panels each the width of the fabric (54"), and I didn't even cut off the selvage!*

Once your fabric panels have been cut, cut the drapery lining (lining protects the fabric from becoming faded and provides a more sophisticated look from the outside.  No one wants to see what color your drapes are from the outside of your home).   The lining should be 3 inches narrower than the fabric panel width, and 2 inches shorter.

Next, make the hem on the fabric panel.  This is done by folding fabric to the wrong side 6 inches (for a 3-inch hem) or 4 inches (for a 2-inch hem).

Iron the fold so you have a nice crisp edge.

Then, bring the raw end of this fold and tuck it against the pressed edge.  Press again.

Pin in place.

Stitch close to the folded edge of the seam, creating the bottom hem for your panel.

Repeat this process for the lining fabric, creating the hem on the lining.

Lay the fabric panel and lining panel right sides together, lining the top edges together, and centering the lining on the fabric.

Pin the fabric to the lining on each side of the panel (do not sew the tops or bottoms together), being careful to keep the fabric from shifting.  If you're worried about the fabric shifting you can always pin the top edges together while you work, to ensure that the lining will be pinned straight to the fabric. Sew sides using a 1/2-inch or 5/8-inch seam allowance.  Since I left the selvage on mine, I just used the selvage line as my stitching line which made it pretty easy.

(Sorry I don't have a picture of this one, but I think you get the idea).

Turn the panel right side out, making sure that an equal amount of fabric is on each side of the lining and press.

To finish the top and create a rod pocket, fold the top over 4 inches to the wrong side.  Press, then bring the raw end in to the pressed edge, press again and pin. (This is the same process as used for the bottom hem).

*I was working with less fabric than I should have had on my remnant piece, so I had to make the rod pocket a bit skimpier than I wanted, which is why you see in the picture below that I only folded 2 1/2-inches to the wrong side.  If you're skimping like I did, follow these next few bits, otherwise skip to the part where it says, "stitch rod pocket in place, stitching close to the top folded edge".

Turn the raw edge under 1/2-inch, press and pin in place. 

This hole will become the rod pocket

If you're going to 'cheat' like I did, you can take that raw edge that you turned in, and simply fold the end at an angle so it looks a bit cleaner from the outside.

Stitch rod pocket in place, stitching close to the top folded edge.

Now, you can either hang using the rod pocket, or you can clip on some rings and slide those onto your rod.  It's nice to have an option.  Just be sure that you measured correctly from the beginning because the length will be different depending on how you hang your drapes.

You can be done here, but if you left the selvage on like I did, you may want to do this next little step. 


The bottom of my panels looked like this:

You can see here how the lining is shorter than the fabric.

I didn't want this much of the selvage to show on the inside of my panel, so I decided to do one small stitch and hide it a bit.

Starting at the bottom corner of that selvage, fold in to the side edge, at a 45 degree angle.

Stitch at an angle, close to folded edge.

It will look like this when you're done:

Be sure to clip your threads!

It's not necessary, but if you hate cutting fabric as much as I do and want to leave the selvages on, this is a way to make it look a bit better.

There you have it, some simple drapery panels!

Here are some other links for ways people sew their drapes.  Enjoy!
No Sew Panels  by In My Own Style 

Drapery Panels Lining made Kind of Easy by Isabella & Max Rooms (there is a series on this blog, which you'll find if you go to this link).

How I Sew Drapes by Scissors and Spatulas

I'll be linking this to:
Making the World Cuter Monday
Made by You Monday at Skip to My Lou
Tutorials and Tips Tuesday at Home Stories A to Z
Strictly Homemade Tuesday at Strictly Homemade
Show Me What Ya Got at Not JUST a Housewife
Tuesday's Treasures at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Laugh, Love, and Craft