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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mini guest room post #1

I'm making slow progress, because as usual, I'm working on multiple projects (do I repeat myself a lot ? ! ).

The guest room is approx. 6ft x 9ft, so it really is small. It also needs to have a dual purpose, as a guest room/sewing room. Not that I will go in there to sew, but I need a place to store all my sewing stuff.

The guest that stays here the most is Pandy, and I'm pretty spoilt at her place. I get the pink toile bedroom with an en suite ! You can see more pictures of it here in a very early post, as well as other photos of her amazing home.
There is only one bathroom in our house, definitely no chance of an en suite, so I want to make the room as cosy and inviting as possible. Besides, I have that great bed I found here, and it lends itself to a more classic style, much more up Pandy's street.

This is my starting point - an Ikea blanket and two cushions, that were in the sitting room.

I hate blankets just thrown over chairs, but I did this to hide an Ikea bucket chair that seriously needs a makeover (idea already logged for this and added to long list). All three things came from the guest bedroom in my last house. That's the flooring on the right, which we still haven't put down, except in the kitchen - hmmm !!!

I found some remnants of the fabrics, and some other pieces to use. I had covered a headboard in this previously, which unfortunately I no longer own.

There's a large enough piece of this fabric to upholster the seat of a chair I have, and the rest is going to be used in a pelmet.

I love bobble fringe, and the little linen table mat was £1 in a charity shop. I have ideas for all of this, but the first thing on my list was a bed cover. The cream one under the fabric is very old and not particularly nice.

There was nothing in TKMaxx - not that I've got the money anyway. I wanted to put my blanket on the end of the bed, on top of a cream quilt, or something similar. My generous friends - ie Pandy and her mother - bought me a gorgeous duvet set and some extra pillow cases.

Aren't they lovely ! The duvet set is from TKMaxx, and the pillow cases are from The White Company.

I also got a cream bedcover, similar to the white one, but much, much nicer.

There is no photo, because a strange thing happened, and I didn't need it (Pandy's mum was totally cool with this, it was only £5.99 I think).

I was talking to my ex, about the room (he's another old geezer and gets on very well with the current old geezer !), and he told me that he had a bed cover I made !

I couldn't remember making one at all. I even had a whole discussion with Pandy about how I couldn't have made one, because I would have remembered working it all out and sewing it.

The ex old geezer dropped off my lined and inter-lined bed cover with the scalloped edge !!! 

I am 2 years off 50. Actually, make that 1 1/2.

Is it all down hill from now on ? 

The knees are already on the way out. I've just got my first pair of glasses and now my memory ??

I'd remembered covering a headboard, so how on earth could I have forgotten actually making a bedcover.

Well, at least I have it - and it's certainly very Pandy !

And although there are no pics, the black and white check blanket looks great along the end of the bed.

Onwards and upwards. I have a list of about 12 things to do in this room, added to the one thing I have done already - but I will share that with you another time, if I remember !!!

inspiring bloggers

Seeing everyone else in blogland get on with their own homes, has really inspired me to get a move on with mine.

I have always had tons of ideas but occasionally now, I come across something that really makes me think outside of my own little box ! I've never been that much into salvage yards, but I definately need to visit some now because I totally love Holly's bedroom at downtoearthstyle.blogspot.com

It's the headboard that really inspires me - the window, the mirror, the shelf and the chipped and shabby frame. I want one !!!! I think I would like to do a whole wall of something like this, that goes behind my bedside tables as well.

The pictures could go side by side if I did a long wall of wood and then I may be able to incorporate the candle sconces into the frame.

The lamps need re-painting as they were once in my lounge. I also need to replace the shades as one is broken, although I do love the 'bobble fringe'. The bedside tables were given to me like this and seriously need a facelift.

What's more, the old geezer loves the idea too, so it's off to some salvage yards we go (after Christmas of course.)

The second blogger who really inspires me is Donna at funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com - someone whom I'm sure you all know and love. But the one project that really hit me is her white twig chandelier.

How great is this ? I just think it's amazing and replicating it is going to be hard, but I have a light fitting that I really detest (well it's actually not mine, it belongs to my old geezer !) and it is seriously in need of an overhaul.

I never took very good christmas mantle pictures because all I could see was this beast in the reflection. Well it'll definately go white and then I need to go find someone with some vines !