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Ah... where to begin. The whole Affair of The Curtains began in the summer of 1998. We have a set of extremely large windows that we decided to finally put curtains on. We also decided that it would be much more economical to make said curtains ourselves. Because it's alot of sewing straight lines I figured I was up to the challenge, having only had the previous experience of making my one crappy halloween costume: Princess Leia.
The fabric was bought (for no small amount of cash - these are HUGE windows) and promptly ignored. Was it fear? Probably. Regardless, nothing happened til the summer of 2001. Then, at the time that I was also working on the Haruko Haruhara costume I began work on one panel of the curtains. The idea was to get one done to figure out the process, and then do the rest in rapid order. Well, I ended up getting that panel done, but then progress ground to a halt for one year.
The summer of 2002 I was given an ultimatum by my mother. I would get those curtains done before I went to Vet school, or else. So... I got them done. This was a vast amount of curtainage by the way. Twelve foot tall windows by eighteen feet wide. insane. Insane insane. They are windows in an old part of the house that my uncle designed in the 40s and the windows are ones that I think he salvaed from a department store... O_O.
At any rate, the curtains got done, however, as if I I hadn't seen enough of that fabric that summer, I decided that the comfortor set that had been on my bed as a child wasn't going to cut the mustard for my bed in Vet school. I didn't want to buy new, so I decided that I would make a duvet using leftover fabric from the curtains. I bought some braid trim in matching colors and a nice fabric in similar shades with a small leafy pattern to use as a counter fabric. I made a duvet, bed skirt, 2 pillow cases and pillow covers for the 2 throw pillows and 1 floor pillow. The cost of the project was somewhere around 20 dollars, as opposed to what it would have cost to buy new, I came out rather ahead.
And finally, cause I just hadn't seen enough of this fabric yet... I still had scraps in my sewing bag (and indeed, a good deal of yardage on a bolt at home still... we measured a little off it seems...) I decided to do one last project. I needed to donate an item to the charity auction of an organization I was in. I couldn't find a store to donate for me, so I decided to make something nice that wouldn't cost me alot, but would sell pretty well. I decided on doll furniture. I got a nice unfinished bed and dresser at a local wood mill store and painted them white with little Ivy leaves to match the Ivy of the fabric. For the sewing part I made a little mattress, comfortor, pillow and pillowcase, throw pillow, tooth pillow, bed skirt and runner for the table. The little night dress and night cap are sized to fit an American Girl doll. All of that was made from scraps from my duvet project. The unfinished furniture didn't cost me much, and the paint was like 3 dollars, so it was a fun project for me that didn't cost much, but brought in over 50 dollars at my organization's auction.
I haven't made anything from that fabric since, but it came out nicely when I made what I made. This fabric is still my duvet too. Possibly slightly tired of it, but only in the way that any bedroom set eventually becomes dull.