bean29
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Post by bean29 on Aug 13, 2015 10:58:45 GMT -5
Captain,
I am fairly good with a sewing machine myself, but I would not tackle sewing window coverings.
I made the curtains for the kitchen in my first house. I did it because I had a picture window in my kitchen and there just were not "kitchen" curtains available that would look good in the room. I ended up deciding I spent 2-3x what I should have b/c the material costs so much more at the yard goods store than when you buy ready made items. It is also more difficult to work with large lengths of cloth and keep the volume of fabric manageable under your presser foot. (eta. It did turn out very good, I was very proud of the way it looked - just the effort involved and cost - not worth it at all). Since you said your windows are 72" long. I vote do not attempt, unless you modify sheets, and I doubt this will give you the look you want. For what it is worth, I have also modified sheets into curtains and a balloon shade. The balloon shade cost me more than it should have b/c I had to buy the hook and loop tape and cord at the fabric store and again it was more than I expected. It looked great though, and was not available in the store.
I have done minor modifications to drapes I bought at the store. DD like certain drapes from JC Penneys, but she wanted the back to face the room. (back was light blue and front was brown. I bought them a little long and put a new header on them for a large drapery rod with finials on the end.
I opened your thread hoping you had visited HD and got a favorable or manageable quote. I would just shop a few big box stores and go with the best quote. You seem to know what you want.
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Aug 13, 2015 11:06:30 GMT -5
bean29 - I actually made the drapes for all the bedrooms two houses ago. Although you are right, the window sizes were much smaller. (and I'll make a small confession - the drapes for the guest bedroom were actually shower curtains from Kohl's that I cut down and re-sized.) They were pretty simple, hemmed edges with a slip pocket on the top to slide over a rod. Nothing as fancy as balloon shades or valences or anything. Even I'm not that good (sounds like you are though!). Throw on a few fancy tie-backs with tassels and it looked pretty good. Don't worry, I won't be trying it. If I went with drapes I'd want grommets through the fabric as opposed to a slip pocket to slide on a rod. I'm going to HD for an "opening consultation" this Saturday and will post results here.
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bean29
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Post by bean29 on Aug 13, 2015 11:17:38 GMT -5
I noticed Kohls had a shower curtain that would have made a great window covering for my guest bedroom. I was tempted, but that window is about 4' long and we already had a blind on it. Curtains are pretty simple projects, its just sewing straight seams, and ironing huge pieces of fabric (which I also do with store bought curtains and drapes)
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Anne_in_VA
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Post by Anne_in_VA on Aug 13, 2015 14:32:24 GMT -5
Y'all have inspired me and I may have to try making some curtains! We've been in our house for almost 2 years now and I have some old (read:they were DH's from 10 or more years ago) on some of the windows! A couple have tears, and I hate them, but they serve the purpose.
I want some plain white curtains for my kitchen and haven't found any I like in a length And width I need. I will probably end up getting some fabric and sewing them to the length I need.
The bedroom windows are short and narrow, so I'll probably do the same thing for those too. I may have to get DH to sew them, since he sews better than I do. When DSD was in cheer, he used to bring along his portable sewing machine in case of emergency. He used to be known as "XXX Seamstress" to all the cheer kids!
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Jaguar
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Post by Jaguar on Aug 13, 2015 14:47:08 GMT -5
My sister has made all her own curtains and pillows for all the homes she has lived in, if someone with Alzheimers can do it, so can everyone else. Go for it !
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Aug 16, 2015 8:01:10 GMT -5
Ok peeps, made it to Home Depot yesterday. Please let me say I had an absolutely amazing experience!
The guy I worked with (Raymond) was fantastic. Very friendly and not pushy at all. He let me check out a few sample books so DH and I can look at the samples in our own home. He's been in flooring and windows for 14 years so he was pretty knowledgeable.
The original quote was $9400 for everything and that was for natural woven roman shades in every room except the three smaller bedrooms where we went with honeycomb to save $.
Now admittedly this was for Hunter Douglas, but nope! Not happening.
Now getting Bali through HD I was able to upgrade the bedrooms to fabric roman shades and still do everything for $4500 or less than half the original quote.
Bali has more choices with the binding which I like as well. The reviews on the HD website is very good for that product as well.
The beautiful thing? Since we are doing more than 10 windows (the picture window counts as three) we get 20% off at any time (Bali has a sale through 8/30) so we don't have to rush if we don't want to. The price above includes the discount. That plus we can get 6 months same as cash, and Raymond said there should be a 12 months same as cash offer coming out soon for the HD card.
That will help with the cash flows since we're going to be starting (hopefully) on the kitchen as well.
My HD has excellent reviews on the installation. We'll see.
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bean29
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Post by bean29 on Aug 16, 2015 16:10:18 GMT -5
Ok peeps, made it to Home Depot yesterday. Please let me say I had an absolutely amazing experience!
The guy I worked with (Raymond) was fantastic. Very friendly and not pushy at all. He let me check out a few sample books so DH and I can look at the samples in our own home. He's been in flooring and windows for 14 years so he was pretty knowledgeable.
The original quote was $9400 for everything and that was for natural woven roman shades in every room except the three smaller bedrooms where we went with honeycomb to save $.
Now admittedly this was for Hunter Douglas, but nope! Not happening.
Now getting Bali through HD I was able to upgrade the bedrooms to fabric roman shades and still do everything for $4500 or less than half the original quote.
Bali has more choices with the binding which I like as well. The reviews on the HD website is very good for that product as well.
The beautiful thing? Since we are doing more than 10 windows (the picture window counts as three) we get 20% off at any time (Bali has a sale through 8/30) so we don't have to rush if we don't want to. The price above includes the discount. That plus we can get 6 months same as cash, and Raymond said there should be a 12 months same as cash offer coming out soon for the HD card.
That will help with the cash flows since we're going to be starting (hopefully) on the kitchen as well.
My HD has excellent reviews on the installation. We'll see. Great news. We also got some really great deals on blinds at HD. I know the picture window in our commercial property (huge) was about 1/2 what JC Penneys quoted us, and my kitchen blinds were so cheap I think they made a mistake. The installation, IDK, DH is pretty good and he is meticulous, so not sure he would want to trust anyone else with that.
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