- Joined
- Nov 19, 2007
- Messages
- 4,568
Date: 7/21/2008 12:31:14 AM
Author: Anastasia
I have a custom window treatment business, and have been sewing window treatments for about 15 years. I learned to sew as a kid, and made clothes in my teens. When I got married and we were decorating our first house, I decided to make my own window treatments. My mother thought I was crazy. The first thing I made was traditional swags and jabots. They turned out beautifully. My mother was very impressed!!
My recommendations:
Go for it! Window Treatments are much easier to make than clothing (no zippers or sleeves!).
Take some lessons to learn the basics. Once you learn to follow a pattern, you can figure almost anything out.
Sheers can be pretty challenging to work with, so I wouldn''t start out with them.
Buy home decorating fabric rather than garment fabric. It is wider, and of a much nicer weight to work with. There are lots of great websites that sell home dec fabrics at great prices.
I line everything. Good quality lining makes a huge difference in how your finished product turns out. I interline everything with flannel interlining also. It adds some weight to the treatments.
I would recommend buying a good used machine rather than one of the $100.00 machines. They are really cheaply made. I have a Bernina 930 that I bought off of Ebay. It is a solid machine. The $100.00 machines are completely made of plastic, including all of the ''guts'' of the machine. You might even want to borrow a machine if anyone you know could lend you one in order to learn to sew, and see if it is something you want to invest in.
I''ll post again later if I can think of anything else!
Good Luck!
Thanks for all the tips. What are some of your favorite websites for quality fabric at lower prices? I''d love to start scoping out fabric ideas as I''m waiting to close on this house . . . .
Speaking of which, I just have to post a pic of what I think will be my most challenging windows. I think I''d just go with regular drapes, all the same color. Any better ideas out there for me, keeping in mind, must be easy to make?