Jacquard

What does "Jacquard" mean?

Jacquard is a type of fabric with the design woven into the fabric rather than being printed or dyed.

All of these fabrics can be found in the Jacquard  section of fabric.com.

Giveaway winner!

Beck, you won the pillow covers! email me at windowsbymelissa@gmail.com

Thank you everyone for participating! If you like the pillow covers please visit our shop. Two sets will be going up for sale by this weekend.

Thank you all!

Giveaway Tuesday!

Giveaway Tuesday!

A set of two 18" pillow covers in Dwell Studio Mazescene Taupe

To Enter:

(one entry per number, leave a separate comment for each entry)

1) Share the giveaway on Facebook or other social media.

2) Follow us by clicking "Join this site."

3) Tell a friend to join us!

Good Luck!

Decorate23, our newest contributor!

Decorate23

 Welcoming the lovely Laura from Decorate23 to the blog!

Yes, she sells zoom zoom!!

In addition to her pillow covers she offers many of the most popular home decor fabrics for you to select from for your custom window treatments.

Suzani

Zoom Zoom

The two above fabrics would look great together as a window treatments and coordinating pillow covers. Or even to use one as the main fabric and use the other for a border around the shade.

Turquoise Zig Zag

Florals

And SO many more. Please stop by and take a look. Laura is offering 15% off your next purchase of $20 or more in her shop with the coupon code FIFTEEN! Stop by and check out all the options and imagine your next custom window treatments.



out of the earth a fabric huge rose, like an exhalation

Milton's Paradise Lost (I am an English major turned seamstress. You may have noticed various other literature quotes as titles of blog posts. Except "Hello, I love you." That was a Doors song. But he was a poet of sorts, so it could pass for modern literature ;)

Fabrrics I am currently crushing on. Can all be found at fabric.com.

Window Treatment                                 Coordinating throw pillows

Bella Porte
Water Crosse
and
Stripe Scene

Spring

Bottany Flora Hydrangea and Square Lattice Hydrangea

Maizescene Taupe and New Bottany Flora Taupe

Top Down Bottom Up Roman Shades

Like light, but want privacy? Consider a roman shade that allows light in from the top keeping the living space of a room private.

(from one of our clients, Chuck)

This is what it looks like with bothe the top down and the bottom up.

This is what it would like like with the top all the way up and the bottom all the way down, completely covering the window.

Imperial Trellis for $19.99?!?!?!

You will NOT believe what I just found! A knock of Imperial Trellis that is soooooo much like the original. It is $19.99 a yard instead of $150!!! It is 100% medium weight cotton, so it is appropriate wieght for window treatments and the pattern is every bit as gorgeous as the original. However, it only come in two color ways.

Get yours here!

Check it out here!

Leave me a comment if you llloooovveee that I just found this for you!!!

Blue chevron stripe pillow cover winner!

LESLIE! You were randomly selected and won our giveaway! Please contact me at windowsbymelissa at gmail.com with your shipping address.

Everyone else, thanks for participating and stay tuned for next weeks giveaway! It may have something to do with this lovely Dwell Studio fabric. . .  ;)

Mothers, teach your daughters to sew.

One of the best things my mother could have taught me was the importance of learning skills, like sewing. She used to explain to me that I would need to use it in some capacity or other. Whether it be hemming or patching holes to avoid buying new clothing, or to make alterations to make immodest clothing modest, she knew I would use this skill at some point in my life.

She first taught me how to sew when I was in Junior high. When I was going into Junior High at age 13 she taught my friend and I how to take a pair of last years jeans, cut a the seam out of the outer legs up to the knee and put in a piece of fabric in the shape of a traingle to make the bottoms of the pants "flair," as was the style of the time. We'd always pick the loudest fabrics" bright greens, orange swirls, anything that would express our personality. And in a short amount of time and with little use of money we had new pants!

When I was in high school I was a part of a choir. It was a significant part of my high school career, and to this day it has probably impacted my life just as much as my faith and participation in the church. I auditioned for and was accepted into the elite jazz and madrigal choir. Each year we would perform a madrigal play, perform at the concert and perfrom at various functions in our madrigal costumes. As the choir was such a big part of my life I knew I wanted this costume to be something I'd keep forever instead of just renting one. Knowing how to read patterns I went and purchased the pattern I wanted to use, I read the back of it and got all the necesssary fabrics, linings and trimmings, and, not trusting myself, put all of those things in my mothers lap when she got home from work that day! And this was the final product:

(I am on the left).

(and sorry to my HS friends for not asking permission to put you on my blog. I'll keep your names secret ;))

Just as a side note, the original pattern on the dress was a very boob-a-licious dress. My mom was able to add alter the pattern to keep sacred things sacred ;)

Every time I wore that dress I'd think about how cool it was that my mom could do that and I wasnted to be able to do that for my daughter some day.

I married my husband while he was in law school and I was finishing undergrad. This translates to beaucoup dolla's in student loan debt. Debt in addition to the first years after law school when the newbies have to pay their dues and aren't getting paid much, money was tight. Because I could sew I was able to make some of my own maternity clothes for when we were expecting our first baby. I was able to make that baby his curdoroy church slacks for many years. I was able to outfit each of our houses with inexpensive window treatments and other accents. Sewing did prove to be an extremely valuable skill to have. But it wasn't enough to just be able to make our own articles of clothing to keep from buying new items. I started making toddler summer dresses and Christmas dresses for a local toddler shop!

 (matching hat with bloomers)

All this baby girl dress making got me thinking that I needed one of those baby girl things to put in those dresses. So I did just that! And when she was born I wanted her blessing dress to be made by me and my mom so it could be something REALLY special. And to make it even more special, I used the fabric from my my wedding dress.

(Pre-wedding photo, week before. Yes, I did do something with my hair on my wedding day ;))

The dress is so special and I see it every time I open her closet. It makes me super happy that my mom taught me to sew! Mom made the headband and did the fancy hem with the trim and added the flowers on the shear part of the dress. It's super special and I just love every part of it. I even made her shoes! I am so glad my mom taught me to sew!

After my little Miriam was born, money got more tight. Surprise! So I tried opening an etsy shop thinking if I could get one or two orders a month selling roman shades and curtains that we could make ends meet. That happened for the first little while, then sales increased. So to celebrate I took my family to Disneyland! Then sales increased even more. So I hired a team! And now we are a team of five seamstresses and one assistant!

When I opened my little custom window treatments shop I never dreamed we would be what we are today. If you had told me I wouldn't have believed you. Not only have we been able to make ends meet, but we have been able to employ several mothers and keep them in their home with their young children and helped them avoid having to leave the home to go out in the work place. And through our sponsor program we are also helping out in the community. (See our sponsor link in the top bar).

I owe the success of my business to my mother who taught me the value and importance of sewing.

Thank you mom!

 

( I only added this because I hadn't seen it a long time and when I did I thought, "If I took a picture of Miriam right now it would probably look something like this." This picture was taken two years ago. My little miss is a bit of a crier).

Giveaway Tuesday!

Two 18" zigzag chevron stripe pillow covers in village blue and natural.

To Enter:

1) Follow our blog!

2) Share giveaway on Facebook or other social media

Leave a comment on our blog telling us where you plan to put your new village blue zig zag pillows.

Good Luck!

ZoomZoom

Our sponsor Bobbie Lou Fabric Factory is carrying the latest in the zig zag craze, zoom zoom!

Check it out along with all of her other amazing deals!

Giveaway on The Shabby Nest

My giveaway on The Shabby Nest.

Welcome Shabby Nest readers! Please feel free to take a look around our blog. And please follow. You won't be sorry ;)

Check it out!!!

And if you have the time to read about our Sponsor program please do that and please think about any loved ones in your life whom you think may benefit from this program. We have Family Sponsors through April, but that's it! We need more! We are happily reviewing applicants. If you would like to submit an application tell us your story or the story of a loved one and how they can benefit from our modest contribution. If there are any blogs or family websites where we may view the family and read the story first hand that would be greatly appreciated. Please send all applications and inquiries to windowsbymelissa @ gmail . com

Thank you for stopping by! We hope you'll stick around!

Curtain widths and lengths

Curtain widths and lengths can determine the mood and tone of the room. A curtain that is mid length, or sill length, is informal or casual. A curtain that is floor length can be either formal or semi-formal. A curtain that goes beyond floor length and puddles on the floor is formal and dramatic.

If you don't have a prtruding window sill the curtain drop ideally would go 6-8" below the sill.

(not my work. Found this on pinterest ;))

Curtain panel can have several different functions. The function you choose will determine its necessary width. They can be either non functional, also known as side framing, or they can be functional. Side framing curtain panels usually serve to frame a window or accent an exsisting treatment such as an upholstered cornice board or even a roman shade. The width of this style will depend on how casual or how formal you want the room to feel. The narrower the curtain the more casual feel you will achieve. The more fullness and width the more formal and dramatic feel you will achieve.

For side framing curtains you can go as little as 1/2- 1 times width. One times width is typically 50".

The window in this picture is only 38" wide. So we went with half widths, each measuring 25" wide, creating a casual look. (curtains were for a client's window and not meant to puddle*).

For curtains that are intended to function, there is a general rule to consider when deciding on width. A curtain of one width will generally cover 25". So one set of curtains single width will cover a window with a max width of 50". If your window is wider than 50" it would be best to add a half width or full width to the panel for more fullness.

More fullness will ensure that you won't have to pull the curtain completely flat to cover the window. In addition to a more formal feel, more fullness will also ensure that your curtains don't fade from the sunlight.

The final thing to consider with curtain length is that ideally you want to hang your curtain rod between 5" and 8" above your window's frame.





All of these factors should be taken into consideration when deciding what width and what length you will want your custom curtain to be.

Happy window dressing!