Saturday 7 July 2012

the pelmet for my guest room

There are no curtains in this house except in the old geezer's daughter's room.
Why ?
I'm not sure, it just doesn't seem right somehow. The rooms are small, and we have a lot of stuff, curtains would just clutter up the space even more.
We have venetian blinds at all of the windows and in my mind they are gorgeous white shutters (I dream good) !!

In my mini guest room I felt like I needed a pelmet, and I had these remnants, that match the bed cover.


The piece on the right is enough to cover a chair seat, so I worked with the three pieces on the left, and created this.


I wanted a very simple swag, nothing too grand. 
As I only had a little bit of the printed fabric, I used it as part of the lining, combining it with some Laura Ashley fabric, which has a woven leaf design.


I sewed the three pieces together, then attached a piece of the leaf fabric, along the longest edge to make the lining.


I cut a piece the same size (in the leaf fabric) for the front. I think it was about 56" (the width of the fabric), by 15" in total.


Then I sewed them right sides together, sandwiching the bobble fringe in the middle. This one comes with the bobbles attached to a braid that I like to hide apart from the tiny scalloped edge. You can just see it in the picture below.


The bobbles are perfect for a pelmet or curtain.
If I'm doing a cushion, I use a string of bobbles with no braid. You just sew them on by hand between each bobble, as below. Both of these trims were bought from an amazing shop in London V V Rouleaux.


Back to the pelmet - we had a baton on the wall, so I put sticky velcro on it, and attached the other side to the top of the pelmet. I just used a hot glue gun, as I didn't have any of the sew on type. The velcro is strong enough to hold the pelmet up.
Then I cut up two old tie backs. I stapled one side of the cord under the pelmet, made sure the tassel hung straight, then tied the two ends at the top, stapled and cut off the excess.


I pulled it up enough to be able to see the lining and tucked the ends in and voila !




I'm so happy with it, but as usual, it looks better in real life that in my photos. Perhaps it'll look better when I can show you the whole room.
What's really great though is that I had everything already, so there was zero cost !

Thanks for stopping by - Fiona x  

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16 comments:

  1. Oh what a great idea. I love the two fabrics and the swag looks gorgeous. Fabulous pillow also. Hugs, Marty

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  2. I congratulate you Fiona on your sewing skills! I have absolutely no idea on this field! We don't use pelmets here in Greece, so I didn't even know what the word mean! But... hey... I searched for it in Google translate and I found out! LOL!

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  3. Fiona, they turned out great! I wish I could sew like you! Or wished you were a bit closer so you could give me some tutorials. Just doing pillows still :)

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  4. Love the pom poms! and the fabric!

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  5. So I've never heard the word pelmet before. Is it like helmet for windows, it does on the top like a helmet goes on a head? Sort of looks like the way you made it that it's reversible?

    ~Bliss~

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  6. Perfect finishing touches on that swag! It's amazing how little patterned fabric you used to get so much impact! ~ Maureen

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  7. I love the way this looks! Just in time for the Olympics! Hail, Brittania!

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  8. My favorite kind of project- free! Love the toile fabric, and of course the pom pom trim!

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  9. I love it when you can make something from things you have on hand. It looks great.

    Holly

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  10. Super cute and you know how i love a project that costs nothing!!

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  11. This turned out great Fiona! Love that you made it all up with no cost too. And those pompoms...they're the finishing touch!!!

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  12. Okay, first thank you for teaching me what the heck a "pelmet" is.

    Second, thanks for sharing a great idea! What a wonderful way to soften the Venetians... and third

    I LOVE the pillow!

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  13. Oh THATS where the fabric for the chair came from. Sorry I'm a little bit behind on my reading!

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  14. Love this Fiona - what a great combination of fabrics - who needs shutters anyway! CJ

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  15. Looks great Fiona! Thank you for sharing at my place! xo Jami

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  16. A very creative use for complementary fabrics, practical and pretty! Those bobbles are TOO cute!

    Poppy

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