Start of the Nursery Project - Valence and Pillows

Another recent, but not-so-little project was to create the furnishings for a baby nursery!  Somehow, knowing these things were for a baby's room made the project all that more enjoyable!

I first met with the mother-to-be to discuss designs, then accompanied her to the fabric store to look at materials.  The theme she chose was "Chronicles of Narnia," and was to include iconic imagery from the series, including lions, crowns, lamppost, children in the woods, and quotes.  The colors she had in mind were cream, gold, and red.  

We found some gorgeous fabrics in cream and gold for crib furnishings, and a beautiful heavy red and gold chenille with a medieval look we thought would coordinate well.

We decided to use the patterned fabric for a valence and two pillows, which I describe in this post. 

The valence was to be hung from a 4" board, with box pleats on each end.  We decided to insert the heavier gold fabric inside the two pleats.    

The first step was to place a strip of the gold fabric in the place needed to be inside the pleat.

The next steps were cutting and preparing the lining, sewing it to the back of the main fabric (hemming the bottom edge and sides at the same time), then making the pleats and basting the entire top edge.

I stapled it to the top of a prepared board* and edged it with some cording made from the same fabric.  I tacked the pleats slightly to keep them from swinging open.  (*A board is prepared by covering it in lining fabric.  After stapling on the valence and cording, the lining fabric folds over to hide the staples and make it look tidy.)

Here it is posing on a filing cabinet for a picture.  We will have to wait for pictures of it installed - the home is in another state!

The pillows are 22" feather pillows.  They are edged in self cording, with zipper closures.

I just love feather pillows.  They have such a luxurious feel, and will always fluff up beautifully, with never a lump!

The rest of the project - crib skirt, bumpers and ties, comforter, pillow, and rail pad - will be covered in following posts!

Den Drapes Makeover with Valences and Celtic Applique

What??  ME have a little time on my hands and just enjoy the moment?  Rare!  This was just the dangerous situation I found myself in last week.  After all, there are so many projects at home needing to be done.  For one thing, the drapes in my den have needed a makeover for some time.  They are too long for a recessed area two of the windows are in.  And they let in too much light around the top for this room, which we watch TV in.  And they were hard to open and close because they were gathered on the rod.  I have actually thought about what I wanted to do for a long time, and decided to just take care of it this week.

My solution was to cut off the drapes to the correct length and use the cut off part to make a valence.  I'll just describe this part because I should NEVER be trusted to be the one that takes pictures of everything that needs pictures, and I'm afraid I fell down on the job again this time.

I knew I would have about 13" to cut out.  To preserve the existing hem of the drapes and lining, I took this 13" out at the bottom edge of the rod pocket at the top.  After cutting out the piece and putting it aside, I attached the long bottom piece to the rod pocket heading.  I knew that piecing seam would not be noticeable there.  At the same time, I inserted interlining to give the drape body and add insulating qualities -- this room tends to get cold in the winter.

After attaching the lower drape to the header, I put in pinch pleats so the drape could be opened and closed easily and retain evenly-spaced gathers when closed.  I did not use a header tape because I wanted it to be soft and stay open when opened.  Plus, the pinch pleats themselves will not show under the valence and did not need to be so crisp and perfect.

The drapes finished, I hung them using cafe rings on the same inexpensive sheer rod they were on before.  The cafe rings and sheer rood will not show under the valence.

To make the valences, I planned to hem the strip I removed from each panel and staple it to a 1x4 board, and mount it above the drapes.  But I felt the valence needed some decoration or interesting feature.  I had heard about appliqueing Celtic designs or monograms using bias tape and decided to be my own guinea pig so I would be experienced should a client request this feature. 

I went online and found what is a fairly typical Celtic design.  I printed it out, enlarged it to the size I wanted, and made a pattern.  After completing the valence, I positioned the design in the middle. 

I punched holes in the key turns and used a fabric marker to mark the design and then connect them to form the entire design.

 Next I prepared the bias tape.  I had wanted to take the easy way out and find a packaged bias tape, but could not find one in the color I wanted.  I couldn't find cotton either, which would have been the easiest fabric to make bias tape with.  I did find a really pretty gold heavy satin.  The satin was a beautiful choice for this, but not friendly for making bias tape!!  I eventually figured out a method that worked for me and got busy applying it to my prepared valence.

I used a mini-iron (shown here) because I needed something small to work with this 3/8" wide tape.  The mini-iron I purchased - the Clover Mini Iron II - is really the only choice out there.  And it is a piece of junk!  (Not to put too fine a point on it!)  Within 20 minutes, the metal rod coming out of the handle (inside the plastic guard you see on the left) came loose and wiggled around in the plastic housing!  It was not usable that way.  I discovered the rod does not go all the way down the handle but is "anchored" only about a 1/4" inside it!  After much frustration, I found a way to have it held centered inside the plastic guard and was able to keep working.

The finished design!!  I thought it turned out well after all the frustrating twists and turns.








This picture shows the updated drapes.   By the way, I added blackout lining inside the valences so light wouldn't come through and interfere with the look.  I'm sorry I don't have "before" pictures, because this is a 100% improvement!

I'm starting on a baby nursery for a client this week.  I'll keep you posted!

Living Room/Dining Room Valences

In July, I posted a blog about a valence mock-up made out of muslin.  That mock-up was about 45" wide.  The first windows my client decided to tackle with this valence were 82" wide!  So -- do we add more swags and chevrons or do we make the same design, only larger?  

The answer was clear when I saw the dimensions we needed.  The valence was to be attached at about 107" from the floor, several inches above the window.  And the valence needed to come down long enough that the top of the window was not visible, even more length needed because the viewer would be so far below the valence.  We ended up with 37" length on the ends and 23" for the swags.  This actually fits a guideline I have seen - a valence should be about 1/3 the length of the window.  To add swags the size of the mock-up, but with the new length needed, would make the valence look stretched from top to bottom and would have taken much more fabric.  We went with enlarging the original design.

The scale settled, I made new patterns of the size needed.  There are three types of pieces:  The center chevron, the cascade for the ends, and the swag.  All pieces are made with four layers in this case:  The main fabric on the front, lining (with an accent band) on the back, and interlining and blackout lining in the inside.  The interlining gives the valence a luxurious feel and the blackout lining keeps light from coming through and interfering with the look of the folds and creases.

On the left is the back of the center chevron.  The lower edge is a band made of the accent fabric (a beige satin).  When the chevron is folded, the accent fabric will show on the front side as seen in the next picture.  To create the band, I simply cut off the bottom of the lining and sewed on strips of the accent fabric.  The cascades on the sides and the swags also have a border of accent fabric on the lower edge of the back.  

  

This is the cascade.  The picture on the far left shows using a ruler to ensure the accent piping is applied in a straight line.  I used lots of pins to keep the bias-cut fabric from stretching and slipping.  (I also used a ruler and lots of pins on the chevron since its edges are cut on the bias.)  You can see in the picture with the folded cascade how the accent band on the back shows through the front at each fold.


The piping for all the pieces is made using sausage bead weighted cording.  The piping is made from accent fabric, with a narrow layer of interlining between it and the sausage bead weights to cover the bead "bumps".  This type of piping gives the pieces extra weight so they hang well.


The swag pieces were very large - with too much width to cut on the bias as would have been done if possible.  Swags cut on the bias hang a little better than swags cut on the grain.  But even if we had gone with narrower swags, the width needed would have prevented cutting on the bias.  It took a little work, but the grain-cut swag had a nice form in the finished valence.

Each valence will have a cascade on each end, a chevron in the middle, and two swags, all hung from a 1" x 4" board.  To prepare the board, I took a piece of lining fabric and stapled it so it covered all the wood.  I used a wide enough piece of lining so that there was enough left to cover the stapled valence pieces at the end.


The next step was to staple on the chevron in the center, then the cascades on each side.  To prepare those pieces, I folded them on my work surface, pinned the top edges, and ironed very well, pinching the weighted piping at the folds.  As I stapled them to the wood, I was able to make any adjustments needed so they hung nicely.  The stapling itself was very easy since I use an upholstery staple gun powered by an air compressor.  The only way to go, in my opinion.

Getting the swags on the wood was challenging as it involved working with the folds to make them hang just right.  I adjusted some of the folds, which required cutting the top edge.  The finished product, then, was not the same as the original cut pattern!

 

 Here I have finished attaching the pieces to the wood and have brought over the flap of lining, folding it at the edges and stapling all around.

One last bit of preparation was to tack the folds in the chevron and cascades so they hung flat, but in a natural way.  As you may be able to tell, I had the board clamped to my work surface, and fortunately had enough height for the pieces to hang without touching the floor.

Here are the installed valences.  To hang them, I attached 3 angle brackets to the wall at the desired height, then laid the valence on top.  With someone holding one end in place, I was able to screw the angle brackets to the bottom of the wood (using a cordless drill with a screwdriver bit attached of course!).


 
One final detail - to keep the edges of the cascades close to the wall, to keep sunlight from shining through, I pulled the bottom of the cascade tight and nailed a tiny brad through the piping into the wall.





I have to tell you about my perfect drill - the Bosch PS10-2A 12V Max I-Driver.  It's cordless, not too heavy, slim and sleek, has plenty of power, and has good balance.  But best of all, I can rotate the head to different angles, including straight up!  This was great when screwing the brackets to the wood on these valences.

I gave my previous one like this to my daughter, and right away went to buy a new one.  But the stores I searched do not carry it!  I bought it online.

Pinch-pleated Valence for Breakfast Nook

Wow, I have really gotten behind on my posts!  All I can say is, you  have to make hay while the sun shines, and the sun has been shining, as you will see as I catch up my blog!

Here is a project for a pinch-pleat valence in a breakfast nook with 3 angled windows.  We decided to hang the valence fairly high and make the finished length 21".

 

The cut length of the valence is 21" + 3"*2 for hem + 4"+1" for header = 32".  The pattern is Bosporus.  After determining where I wanted the pattern to fall on the finished valence, I pulled a thread to mark the top and bottom cuts.

    

The finished with of the valence is 152", so before pleating and including the seams for the multiple widths, I needed 292" of width.  This took about 6 widths of fabric!  The repeat on this fabric is 24", so as I cut each of the widths starting in the exact same place in the pattern there was about 16" of waste between each one.  Nothing to be done about that.

Next step is to sew all the main fabric widths together and repeat the cutting and sewing widths together with the lining (below).

I chose to sew the side hems next, bringing the main fabric in 2" on the edges.  I sewed each side hem by matching the raw edges of the lining and main fabric, right sides together, and sewing a 0.5" seam allowance. Once the side seams were completed, I stretched out the fabric and lining to press the sides in so that the lining was completely flat against the fabric from end to end.  Now I turned up a double 3" hem, pinned, and hand-stitched all the way across.  Did this take time with about 12' of hem?  Yes!  Looking back, I think I could have saved some work by machine stitching the top of the hem to the lining (without showing on the front), then hand-stitching the sides, which were so short.

After the hem, I placed the bottom of the iron-on buckram exactly 21" above the bottom of the hem and ironed it in place.  Then turned down the 1" tuck allowance, then turned all that over again and pressed to result in a 21" total length.  I stitched along the bottom of the header edge to give it a neat appearance from the back.

I also at this time hand-stitched the folded edges and bottom corners so everything would lie flat.




Now for the pleats!  There will be 30.  The first step is to mark the gaps and pleat widths all along the header and check to be sure there is the correct amount of gap on each end (4").  I made a marking pattern on a piece of paper and used it to place pins at each pleat and gap.  For each pleat, I folded the valence wrong sides together, matching the beginning and ending pleat pins, and sewed down 4" through the fabric, lining, and buckram.  The picture at the right shows the panel with pleat spaces sewed and pressed.

  

To make the pinch pleats, I went through the stack and pinched each pleat into 3 folds, securing the lower edge.  On the right is the finished valence, with the fabric design falling just as I planned.

 

The valence was installed using simple pleat hooks hung over three sheer rods butted up against each other to make a continuous valence.  They look nice, I think!

Valence Mock-Up

Recently a customer asked me to work with her on drapes for her new house.  She wants some pinch-pleated drapes, some with a valence only (the lower halves of these windows have shutters), and some pinch-pleated sheers to go behind existing drapes.  She sketched what she would like to see with the valences.  Here is a mock-up I made using muslin.  I taped it to a mounting board and hung it in my work room so I could make adjustments to the pattern if needed.

An interesting thing to note is the difference between the left and right swags.  See how the left swag is a little choppy, while the right swag drapes much smoother?  It is much more obvious in real life than this picture. The difference is caused by cutting on the bias vs. cutting with the fabric grain.  I made the right swag first, as it should be, cut on the bias.  When I got ready to cut the left swag, I did not have enough room to cut on the bias, so cut it with the grain.  I wanted to see the difference because some patterns for swags show cutting on the grain.  This sample is all the proof I need that cutting on the bias is essential, even though it often takes a little more fabric.

Another thing about this is interesting to me as a former math teacher.  I designed and laid out the pattern pieces using trigonometry!  Knowing what certain dimensions of the pieces had to be, I was able to determine the angles, offsets, and pattern cut-out placement using trig functions and the Pythagorean Theorem.  Math is actually useful in real life, and was created in the first place because of such needs.  I know -- blah blah blah!  :)

The final valences will be made of some yet-to-be-chosen drapery fabric, with a plain or decorative lining and cording.  For the cascades (on the sides) and jabot (in the center), I plan to use sausage bead weights in the cording to make them hang "heavy".  It should look great.   More to come on this project, I hope!