Growing Up

Last winter we decided to get Natalie a duvet to replace the comforter that was on her bed. It was cute and she still liked it, but the seams had split in a few places and it was not a warm comforter. I bought the duvet, but had a very hard time finding a reasonably-priced twin duvet cover that Natalie liked. In fact, I looked everywhere I could think of and we were still unable to find something suitable.

Finally, I decided that if I was going to have to spend more than I really wanted to, it might as well be on something Natalie absolutely loved and would be willing to live with for quite some time. We started exploring fabric options and as soon as we saw Anna Maria Horner's Drawing Room line, Natalie knew exactly what she wanted.
We looked at several fabric options in that line, but all she wanted were the birds. Since the print is so large, I decided to just let the fabric shine on its own and use as much of the aqua version as I could as the main panel. It wasn't quite large enough, so I got the same print in cream and used that as a 5" border all the way around.
For the back, I bought a good quality flat sheet and trimmed it to fit. Since flat sheets have that nice, finished, decorative edge on the top, I decided to use that as the top part of the overlap closure. I still need to get some velcro to help keep it closed, but that can wait. Contrary to how it looks in the picture, I really did iron the sheet!
My girl is growing up. Let's just hope she likes this now that it's finished.

I've Been Doing Stuff

See?

Enough With the Procrastinating

I've had this fabric for several months now - sitting forlornly in a bag, waiting to be cut and ironed and transformed into valances for my windows. There was no great reason for my procrastination. Mostly, it had to do with the fact that I don't enjoy the cutting and measuring part of sewing.

Yesterday, I finally bit the bullet, pulled out the fabric, hauled the ironing board upstairs and got to work. I knew what I wanted and there was no need for a pattern. I just wanted flat panels. No ruffles, no gathers, nothing fancy - just flat panels. I had done the measuring of the windows months ago and thankfully, my measurements proved to be right on the mark. All in all, it probably took about 90 minutes, and that was with a lot of stopping and starting and dealing with children.

Today, I learned that it is difficult to take a good picture of a valance in a wood-paneled room. Here's the best I could do...there is one window on one wall and a bank of 3 windows on the next wall.

I can't believe it took me so long to do this.