Waverize it! Rainy Day Curtains! (DIY valances)

Okay - so I got 2 yards of this gorgeous Waverly fabric from Jo-Ann's fabric stores and the challenge to take an everyday item and Waverize it! Exciting, huh? Lots of ideas ran through my mind. I love the print for a dress, but it is a recommended dry clean only fabric and that doesn't fit in so well with my lifestyle... so I thought of a reading nook made of an old crib mattress, but didn't see the fabric as my girls' style (I plan to make one later in case this interests you)...

If I had a smaller print, I may have made a purse or tablet cover.... but I thought the print was probably too large scale to look the way I would like... 

So, I sat and pondered.... and decided to redo my bathroom. Let me first confess that I kind of hate my house. I hate how that sounds - I am not trying to be ungrateful for a roof over my head but its not the best... I really dislike the walls. This is a modular home, so every 4' there is a strip that is raised a little more than the rest of the wall. So every four feet, there is a vertical line. The contractors cover this up by using "wallpaper" that is brown vertical lines. It does help to blend it, but its in every single room of the house and my God, its ugly.

Before picture

Before

Before

Before

My dream bathroom is more like a spa. Isn't every woman's?!

I already have a garden tub, fake porcelein though it may be. I hardly ever use it. One - because I have two kids. And nothing is more un-relaxing than either being joined by two little people or protesting their entry and having them cry and scream that you're the meanest mommy E.V.E.R! Either way, serenity shattered.

Now, on top of the hideous brown lined walls, they also have these atrocious red and yellow curtains. Puke. Sorry if you actually like them.

So, I took my fabric to Ace Hardware and got 2 quarts of a light blue. (Take your fabric because it has those dots on the side that let you know what colors are in the fabric - its a little tidbit I use to help me match fabrics)

These color dots will help you match your fabrics to anything else

I also ran to Walmart to get some new towels. Being a military family, every time we PCS (move to a new duty station) we seem to have to buy new towels (same goes for pillowcases I think) and we have a chronology of them going back years and years and none of them match. I picked out some greens and tans and put "His" on Mr. Sew Charming's and "Her" on mine. I know a lot of people actually get "his" and "hers" but the grammar is only correct half the time no matter how you slice it, so I decided that I wanted it to be correct when I think "that is her towel"... yes I know I'm a bit of a nerd ;n)

In all, I spent $15 on the paint, $7 on the paint brush, $6 on the Scotch painters tape, about $35 on the new towels, $4 on the new soap dispensers, $15 on the bath mats and $2 on the thread. Essentially, my bathroom got a makeover for under $90.

After two quarts of the light blue.

After I painted the room completely baby blue, there was one area where the vertical line was extremely noticeable so I decided to use a rag off technique with a darker blue to create texture and camoflague the line. Well, although it worked, I'm not 100% satisfied since some areas are darker than others. However, its so much better than it originally was and I definitely feel it is more of a serene sanctuary. I bought a hazelnut scented candle and can't wait to get a few moments to myself to sit and soak. Hazelnut is my favorite!!!



CURTAIN INSTRUCTIONS

To make the curtains, I cut from selvedge to selvedge which eliminates a few steps later in the process. I cut 3 pieces to 26". I decided to make one wide and one regular curtain since I figured that would best match up the curtains I'm tossing.

Cut to 26"

I sewed two of the pieces together (Short sides together. You'll end up with a 26" tall by 2 selvedge lengths). After that is done, on the selvedge ends (the ones that measure 26"), fold over your fabric so that the selvedge edge is sewn to the wrong side.

You can see on the right that the selvedge edge was folded over and stitched down. This is when I began ironing the bottom edge up half an inch.

See all the raindrops on the window? Thats why I called them rainy day valances....  A perfect project to finish while you are stuck indoors :)

I folded up the bottom between .25 and .5" and ironed it. Then I turned it up about another .75 to 1" and ironed again.


I used Wonderclips as I went instead of pins because they are easier to add and remove. I used my far left stitch and stitched this down. Be careful that you do not miss the layers of fabric. You should be able to feel and see them through the fabric because of the ironing. Sew slowly over the layered fabric (where the two panels come together on your wide curtains or where the corners are).

Stitching on the bottom edge

Then I ironed .5" down on the top end of each curtain. I folded this down 4.5". This time I used pins. I stitched this down being careful not to miss the layers. Then I stitched another line parallel to this one 1.5" above this line, about 3" below the top of the curtain. The space in between stitches is where the curtain rod will go.

Pinning down the top edge. Where the pins are is where your bottom stitch line will go.

About 1.5" from the bottom stitch line, sew your second stitch line. In between these two is where your curtain rod will go.

Voila! It looks better, yes?  If this inspired you to Waverize something in your life, be sure to enter it! I will post the URL as soon as I have the link. Consumers can win $1000 worth of Waverly fabrics and a $250 gift card! Bloggers are not allowed to enter this contest :(  But one of YOU could win!

Not sure what to make? Check out the Cape Discovery catalog full of ideas to get your crafty wheels a turnin'!

Lembas Bread..... Well, thats what I intended at least

Okay has everyone gone to the bathroom yet? If not, go now, I don't want you to lose it because you're laughing so hard reading this.

It all started as a simple thing, to get yesterday's photos the girls had been bribed with lembas bread. If you're not a huge LOTR geek, its a bread that Tolkien wrote could fill the stomach of a grown man with just one bite. Its a way bread.

Let me preface this story by saying, my husband is on an long TAD period so I'm going a little nuts anyway... I broke a door today, had to mow the lawn, got a clothing delivery that I'm going to have to alter and hem just to have clothes that will fit my girls which seriously irks me - I buy clothes to save myself the hassle and time investment of this, and then to have to do it anyway - you get my drift. My oldest has been sick because she cries so hard for her dad at night she either ingests too much air, leading to puke or her stomach muscle just can't handle it, leading to puke - either way, serious meltdown at bedtime leads to puke the next day. Fun times. Now that you have the back story, let's get to the real story!!!

I found a pin on pinterest that lead me to a recipe. There are curse words in her tutorial, so be forewarned. It is not from the U.S.... which is important in baking. Because of that whole metric system thing..... yeah. Don't forget that. And the recipe makes 8 pieces of lembas and uses what comes out to 1.5 cups of flour, but I didn't think I had enough so I decided to half the recipe, because 4 pieces is enough for the 3 of us. I printed out the ingredients. Not the directions.

Let me tell you something about my family's track record with directions. Hand to God, this is the truth. We do not read directions. My grandmother, on my mother's side, started it... so I suppose its not a long-standing well-known fact but... Anyway... You blow up your house, you get to start that kind of a legacy. Yep, she sure did. She put an ant fogger by the water heater. Sure, she may have blown some walls down, but those freaking ants didn't dare come by her house for a while ;)

Back to my keeping with this tradition - I went into the kitchen with the ingredients on a sheet of paper, well most of the ingredients, my printer was being a punkasaurus but I knew what was missing. I put in the flour, divided it by two, put in the salt, put in the baking powder which was in tbsp so I was good. Put in the honey, also written out in tbsp. Then I put in the butter. I had to convert the butter from grams to cups. The juice of half a lemon. After adding it, I realized I hadn't halved it. In fact, I had not halved anything but the flour. "Well crap" I said. Little voices on my left go "Ooooooooooooooooooh!" and giggled. So I looked inside my flour container and poured the rest of it in. Tapped the bottom. Shook it. Yeah, that was everything and I wasn't sure it was enough. "Screw it" I said. "Ooooooooooooooooooooh!" Again. I turn on the beaters, and the mixture goes up the beaters. It looks like two corn cobs now. Groan!!!!


Well, what the heck right?! I pour in the milk.... and my kitchen is a Bounty commercial. You know the kind - usually the husband is the culprit and batter is flying everywhere. Giggling galore - and not from me..... with some finagling, I am able to get the mixture off the beaters. But now it looks like soup.



















I probably looked a little nuts as I just threw some sugar, an egg and some vanilla in there. Amounts? No freaking clue. Did I care at that point? No. I greased some muffin tins and though "They'll just be lembas inspired today - I don't have to make stinking lembas today."

Tossed them in the oven (hmmm, lots of throwing and tossing in the kitchen today, apparently heehee) for 15 minutes and I had amazing muffins. Plain, not sweet, a very slight lemon taste to them.

I made two ummmm, frostings, shall we call them? Let's use the term loosely. Yes "frostings". One was supposed to be like a glaze, I poured some milk, juice from the other half of the lemon and some powdered sugar together. My inspiration here was the glaze on the top of the lemon pound cakes at Starbucks and nothing could have been further from....

Take two, I put some whipped cream and sugar in a bowl, whipped it and then added a little maple syrup to it. And this was frickin' delicious. So there you go, lembas inspired cupcakes with maple whipped cream frosting.

 Internal dialogue: Voice A "That was lucky"
                           Voice B "A baker is never lucky. She bakes precisely what she means to"   ;)

And  this child walked towards me with whipped cream "frosting" on her hands as I type up the blog. Bedtime? Bedtime anyone????

 

Concerning Hobbits

Let me start by saying, I am a Tolkien fan. I started with the movie, which I have seen hundreds of times and is the "background" for much of my sewing... in fact, I can tell exactly where in a movie I am by the music or noise. And of course I mean the extended version! However, in my hopes to get my girls to love reading, I began reading The Hobbit to them at bedtime. It lulled them to sleep and made that entire process so much easier, which made me love it even more. We are currently around page 70 of LOTR, but the girls do not settle in as well for this book.

Let me tell you that my enjoyment of the movies pales in comparison to my children's! Especially the youngest! We have watched the behind-the-scenes and appendices so she completely understands that its all pretend and make-believe, so she just gets to have fun watching it. The fight scenes aren't scary and what would have scared me to death as monsters... well, lets just say that for a good 6 months, every time Gollum came on the screen she BURST into laughter. Spritely, bubbly giggles. From Gollum. Her favorite number is 87. (Kudos to the first person to figure out why) and when she wants someone to be quiet, she changes her adorable little voice into an Uruk's and says as deeply as she can "You want some? (pause) Then keep your mouth shut!"

And - MOST IMPORTANTLY - they want to eat like hobbits. Hobbits enjoy seven meals a day. But why stop there? My kiddos want to eat some of the same things. Today, it was lembas bread! Well, it was supposed to be lembase bread....

In fact, this was the necessary bribe to get little C-Bear to dress up like a hobbit boy.... although she did thoroughly enjoy wearing it....

Sadly, a pukey morning (oh the joys of parenthood) and an ill-timed nap foiled our plans. So we must try again tomorrow.... Which means you can look forward to more pictures, and a lembas bread recipe review!

So, first things first, what do hobbits wear? Britches, buttoned shirts, suspenders, waistcoats, coats and hooded capes. Well, of those things, I only had a cape so I needed to find some patterns to create the others. For the waistcoat, I made a vest which may or may not be "proper". For the suspenders, I found Little Lizard King's PDF pattern, and I think it worked out great! For the breeches (or britches), I used Scientific Seamstress' Easy Fit pants and just cut them off so they looked like funny little hobbit pants. I also used Scientific Seamstress' Ethan shirt and made some adjustments so the sleeves would and collar would look right. Please note that if you make this pattern as written you will end up with an impeccable shirt, but it will not look like the ones I have pictured. I used poplin for the pants, and cotton for the shirt, vest and breeches.

With the vest

Without the Vest

In her Hobbit girl dress :)

Now, the girls outfits would be incredibly difficult if I made them in as many layers as I needed to make it look legit. So, I sort of faked the funk.... I used Viola Lee's Olivia peasant dress patterns and made the front of some of them look corseted. I lengthened the skirts and used one panel, so once again, the patterns I used will not look the same if you make them as the instructions say. The most recent dress (the blue one!) I made was not my usual pattern, I used Foo Foo Threads' Tasha pattern, but with changes. Same disclaimer goes with this pattern.

Viola Lee's peasant dress pattern (beautiful pics by Keri Gernand Photography!)

Foo Foo Threads' Tasha (Rosie Cotton)

For the fichu (the handkerchief-shawl type thing hobbits wear) I once again kind of faked it til I maked it. Heehee, I did a triangle with a scooped neck because one of my customers is having a Hobbit wedding but depending on the weather, may want something to cover the girls' shoulders. I used a beautiful crushed penne for these.

 

These items are, of course, for sale in my Etsy shop!

UPDATED 4/12/2014

I wanted to add a shot of my Hobbit style cape. It doesn't come from a pattern, I free hand it, but I think it completes the costume perfectly!