The(y) Fray. All At Once.

After nearly ten years, I decided I would make valances.  These two windows had been put on the back burner long enough.
Sometimes I like to talk to DH about my upcoming sewing projects and hope that he'll pretend to be fascinated.
His response: What?  Valances?  What are those?  I think that must be a typo since V and B are next to eachother on the keyboard.

(Sigh.  Don't straight men care about anything important?)

And they're easy.  Like pillocase easy.  Like Bermuda shorts easy.  Like Sunday Morning easy. 
I couldn't find any window treatments liked in the store anyway.  But I found some fabric I liked at Hobby Lobby.  And it was on sale.

And when I got to the fabric cutting counter, I saw that that the fabric was doing double time, which made it hard for me to decide which side I wanted to use.  I loved them both.

Excuse me, ma'am, but do you think you could cut my $15/yard fabric in a straight line?  No?  Okay.  Just thought I'd ask.

Thank goodness for the stripes, because they made fixing the crooked cutting a breeze.  They also helped with making the pocket on top and hemming the bottom.  The width was about right, so I left it alone. 

Unfortunately, this is the type of fabric that falls to pieces the moment you cut into it.  These are the times I really love my serger. 

The threads covering my Walmart sweats made me look like I had been attacked by a giant thread monster.  But really, it was just a lot of fabric vomit.

About two weeks later, I finally got around to hanging up the curtain rods. 

Both sides of the fabric matched my Crazy Cat Chairs.  But since I had to choose, I decided on the dots. 

But when I came downstaris in the morning, I got a surprise:

(It's really hard to take a good picture of a window during the day, but you get the idea.)



Stripes! 

I could add a lining on the backside, but I kind of like it.  I guess it will be stipes by day, dots by night.

Valances are super easy.  I highly recommend them (or curtains) for a good beginner project.  You can pay less than you would at the store and get a much better selection.  And you get to feel all crafty about yourself.  It helps if you don't use fabric that loves to fray.  I'd start with a quilter's cotton or something with less elasticity.  But even so, they were still pretty simple.

And now for some tunes...