A trip to California

During this Christmas/New Year holiday break we took a vacation to Southern California. We lived in California in the early 80`s for 3 years and had our first child there, so after 30 years we decided to go back for a much over due visit. This trip we brought our youngest son and his girlfriend.

Drapes Updated

When we were living in Virginia I bought this very colorful chair and it became one of my favorite pieces. When we moved into our new house in Texas I ended up using all the new furniture that we bought in Virginia in our new family room. I took the couch and one chair from our basement and two chairs from our sun room and put them all in the family room. This colorful chair made the cut.

This chair was my inspiration piece for the updated drapes.

The Family room in the Texas house has dark bamboo like shades and some very formal drapes.  The drapes had a gold pattern on the top fourth with tassels going into a red taffeta for the bottom three fourths of the drapes. I love the drapes, and they are over 10 feet long, so they would be very expensive to replace. So, I thought I would find a contrasting fabric to the colorful chair, and just change the top part of the current drapes.

Drapes before the update!

I went online to the Joann Fabric website and went to the Home Decor Fabric tab. I typed in the color orange and low and behold the exact fabric of my chair came up. After measuring  to see how much fabric I needed, I ordered it online and got 50% off. It came up to under $100 for new drapes.

Step one:  Remove the top section of the drapes. This was very easy. I was able to remove the top gold fabric and keep the tassels intact, because they were sewn onto the top of the taffeta. I left the lining in place still attached to the sides of the lower taffeta portion of the drape.

Drapes before the scissors! 

Top back side of the old drapes.

Cutting the seams open on the side of the top old fabric and then the top section.

After cutting the seams I pulled the folded fabric back and pulled the lining down to expose the seam where the top fabric was attached to the bottom taffeta. 

Here the seam is exposed and I had to make sure I cut the seam attaching the top fabric to the bottom fabric with out cutting the seam holding the tassels to the taffeta.

Success! You can see the fabrics are separating and the tassels are still attached to the taffeta.

Step two: I used the top section I removed as the pattern for the new fabric. I laid the new fabric in the direction I wanted the pattern to show and then put the old top piece on top of the new fabric. I pined it into place and cut around the piece.

I placed the old top piece of fabric on top of the new fabric and used it as my pattern.

Pinned and cut the new top piece.

Step three: I pinned the bottom of the new top fabric to the taffeta bottom with the right sides together. When sewing the pieces together (the taffeta side up so I could see the tassel stitching) I stitched just below the stitches that held the tassels to the taffeta.

Step four: I laid the drapes out on the kitchen island with the right side down. I pushed the seam at the taffeta up so the tassels would hang correctly and pulled the lining up to the top of the new top fabric. I folded the top down over the lining just like the old top was folded, using the fold lines on the lining as a guide. Then I folded the sides over the lining just like the old top was folded. I pinned as I folded.

Pulled the lining up to the top of the new fabric. I know, I should have pulled all the thread for a prettier picture.

I folded the top fabric down over the lining of the top first, using the fold lines on the lining.

Second fold over the top following the lines on the lining and then pinned. You can see it falls right at the stitching holes on the lining from the old top.

I then folded the sides over, also twice and pinned. This made the seams very thick. I also cleaned the back up by pulling all the loose threads. Better late than never, right?

Step five: I sewed the folded edges by hand. The fabric was too thick for my machine. It took a little longer but turned out great.

Step six: Hang the drapes on the rods.

Step seven: Step back and admire.

I loved how they turned out and the tassels matched perfectly.

Love how they match the chair and look very dramatic.