Making Drapes

The living room has some beautiful drapery. I knew this was going to be intensive because of all the details. The curtains are done in three separate stages and the decorative top is done in four. The decorative top that hides the drapery hangers and rods is called a pelmet in the book, but that's just another name for cornice. I painted it with gray pearl but it looks blue in the pictures.

I only had one fabric print small enough for the curtains and I did consider making my own print on muslin to get a softer color - but that sounded really time consuming. This print is a little bright but I went with it anyway.

The cornice/pelmet is decorated with dimensional paint and the oval inset is colored pencil on fabric with a clear crackle over it. The bow decoration on top is a strip of card scrunched up and covered with glue, then attached and shaped to the top.

The fringe was easier to make than I originally thought. It went quick once I had an even cut on the fabric. I pulled the threads starting from the end and then cut the strip from the fabric to glue it to the curtains. There's a trick to it, you just have to do it to learn how.

The drapes are folded and pinned to a board and then liberally sprayed with hairspray to stiffen them while they dry.

The folded swags are glued on to the back of the pelmet first, then the curved swag. The drapes are glued on last while positioning and tacking with glue where necessary.

I spent several hours over the course of two days working on these fancy drapes and cornices. The drying time between steps was tedious and it was raining both days which increased it. If you make these drapes, you might want to use a hot glue gun if you're in a hurry or if it's raining.

With tacky or wood glue assembly, you just have to be patient. But boy, they really transformed the living room didn't they? WHEW! There's going to be more stuff in this room than I thought! I still need to fit a folding screen in there too!