A Li'l Curtain Fixer Upper-ing

Hello lovelies! After a week of mulling over and over all things GDPR, Blogger, Google Analytics, cookies (not the bake-in-the-oven and store-in-the-cookie-jar, kind) private policies, blah, blah, blah.....I am back in my  little world of all things pretty and beautiful. Yes indeedy, I am back to waxing lyrical about stitching pretty things.

One day last week, whilst I was enjoying a cup of tea in my sunny family room, as I looked about me I decided that the curtains which graced my five metre long windows really were looking a tad sad. The sun had faded these window coverings in places and the lining had perished to the point that when I touched it, the lining would tear like paper.

I decided now was the time to do something about my once beautiful curtains. I had put it off for long enough. Now was the time to do a little fixer upper-ing to my curtains. I had stitched the curtains ten years ago, cutting vintage Italian coverlets into patches and stitching them together in a random arrangement. These curtains truly had seen better days. Also, I wanted a pretty, more pronounced backdrop with colours just a little more vivid for my tarted up needlepoint chair. Perhaps a splash of darker pinks and a darker mauve?? Isn't it funny the snowball effect that happens when you add a new pretty to a room and you decide that 'this' needs a little more verve and 'that' definitely needs a little more oomph! 

I love these curtains. I have lived with these pretties for ten years and still I have not grown weary of them. The gorgeous vintage coverlets always make me smile, even on those dull, sunless days. I had looked for a long while for suitable curtain fabric to replace what I had but nothing I saw even came close to matching the beauty of my patched, Italian coverlet pretties. That is of course, nothing that was less than $100 per metre. Oh, I saw gorgeous, gorgeous $100, $200 per metre fabric that would sing the merriest tune at my windows but alas, my purse would need to be overflowing with pennies from heaven for me to bring metres upon metres home with me.

I had enough remnants of coverlets sitting in my armoire so why not fashion something similar to what I already had. The thought was to pull the curtains down and only replace the patches that were looking a little "how's your mother" with new fabric, but upon starting to do this I decided that the old and new just didn't play nicely together.  When I suggested a complete revamp to my husband, just for a fleeting moment,  a look of the fear of God came into his eyes!! Come to think of it, I see that look quite often in his eyes when I say "I've got a fabulous idea"!! =) He knew (he has lived with me and smiled at my eccentricities for forty years) this li'l bit of curtain fixer upper-ing would mean some help from my significant other. These curtains weigh a ton so I was going to need another pair of hands to help me accomplish what I had in mind, and unfortunately for my husband, that other pair of hands was going to be his. Poor man, he truly is the most patient of men!

So the torture fun began. I don't know how many times I hung the curtains up as I stitched the patched coverlets together, checking the seams both vertically and horizontally were straight and then pulling them down. Up again, down again, up again, down again, .........and so on and so on and so on, clambering up and down the ladder until the curtains were pieced together and my persnickety beady eyes were happy. But that was only the beginning. Now I had to sew the grommet tape on. Have you ever made curtains where you have used grommet heading tape?? Sometimes it's easy as...........and then there are times when the blasted grommets decide that they are not going to co-operate and no matter what you do, it takes forever to push the blasted rings on until they click into position. I used a mallet, a piece of wood, my foot with my whole body behind it, but to no avail.....they were not going to budge. This process took hours. I have sewn curtains with grommet  tape many times before, mostly the process is quick and relatively pain free but not this time. Eventually that task was done and then the lining was sewn in and the side and bottom hems were stitched.

As I have a penchant for beautiful passementerie, I decided to embellish with some of these pretties randomly, here and there. Two years ago, for one of my favourite teenager's 13th birthday ('she' is one of my sewing girls), I stitched some curtains fashioned from vintage coverlets and passementerie. I loved them so much that I decided there and then that I really needed curtains dancing with lengths of these fanciful trimmings and fringings in my life. So that is exactly what I did. Yep......love, love, LOVE these decorative and elaborate lengths of gorgeousness.

Swirls and twirls of messy, beautiful passementerie.

Oh look, I'm wearing my pretty woolly. I have been living in it of late because it's a little chilly way down here.

The stitching of these curtains was a herculean task. They fought me all the way, especially forcing them through the sewing machine. There were times when the sewing machine wouldn't have a bar of these curtains but I pleaded, cajoled and enticed it to behave.......and finally it relented. This is where my husband's help was invaluable. He pulled and straightened the curtains as I fed the fabric through.

Are not these vintage Italian coverlets and gorgeous, fanciful trimmings beautiful?? Be still my beating heart!! I am soooooo in love with them!!

After a very long week, finally my Italian coverlet curtains with passementerie dancing in straight lines are up and saying......look at me....look at me!!

Love all the glorious textures of the vintage coverlets!

Fill my world with colour, glorious colour!!

You know, I don't think I will ever tire of seeing all these glorious Italian coverlets bedecked with passementerie adorning the family room windows. So, so happy these windows are dressed with beautiful new pretties. So, so happy I won't have to think about stitching curtains for these windows for another ten years. Me thinks, just between you and me my darling husband is very happy about that, too. =) So, so happy I can just sit, with a cup of tea in hand and drink in the beauty of  all that vintage gorgeousness! 

Have a beautiful week all you lovelies. Thank you so much for visiting my little place. I wonder what fancies I will conjure up whilst enjoying a cuppa, this week??

Until the next time......................

Linking this week with the lovely Jann's Share Your Cup.