I do still like the print, but I was also ready for some changes.
The first thing I did was use a Madras plaid for some quick kitchen curtains, replacing the short curtain over the sink and finally making something matching for the east-facing window that's also in the kitchen. I have not yet managed to get any decent pictures of those, because backlit Madras shows off its texture and fine-ness far more than it shows off its colors.
Finishing those curtains quickly was enough to encourage me to start working on new curtains for the living room. I had just the cloth I wanted, something thrifted last year (I think?) and in a perfect Grandmacore chintz. I'm sure that whoever bought it originally also planned curtains, because the yardage, even though it was in two pieces, was perfect.
But.
The longer of the two pieces had one of these
So once everything was evened out and pattern matched--I do love how interior decorating prints are so easily able to pattern match from selvedge to selvedge--
However, I also had yards and yards of an equally thrifted mauve glazed cotton (I honestly can't remember if it was thrifted at the same time and place as this chintz?), so that would be easy enough to add to the top and bottom to achieve the needed length.
...but then I happened to notice that a bit of a glazed cotton paisley print someone had given to me also coordinated really well with the chintz, and my love of pattern matching overrode my desire to make this a fast project and I decided, yep, gonna do that.
Which meant that, in addition to adding to the sides to increase the width on every different bit of cloth involved, I also had to sew all of those different bits of cloth to each other. And, since most of them would be exposed on the back of the curtains, I decided, yeah, sure, just the right situation for French seams. I sewed the first pass on the serger, so there was absolutely no chance of a stray thread getting by.
But then it was Friday afternoon and I had people coming over on Saturday morning and needed to stop sewing and start cleaning, but I really didn't want to because I couldn't think of any place where I could gently lay the in-progress curtains, and I absolutely did not want to fold them up for storage. I finally thought to use one of the gaming tables in the basement; Husband cleared one off and down the curtains went. I said I'd finish them on Sunday.
I did not finish them on Sunday. I didn't bring them back upstairs until Wednesday, and I didn't work on them again until Thursday, which is today, and is the day I finished them, hooray!
Definitely a change from what we had before. And, can you see the dark cat lump?
The other cat wasn't as subtle
One of the things that had me putting off finishing them was because I knew I'd need to sew the bottom of the curtain rod pocket without being able to align the edge with anything on my sewing machine. Sure, I could have put some masking tape down as a temporary guide, but I didn't trust my ability to get that aligned properly, either.
So I grabbed my 2"-wide see-through ruler and did this
Since the seam allowances on the top seam were pressed up, it made a solid edge that the ruler could be pushed against to hold it in place (although it took me a bit to get the hang of it, so the ruler did wander at times. Nothing I felt like worrying about.)
I didn't measure anything (yes hi it's me here) and the part that got folded over at the top was long enough to cover the back of the paisley, but not long enough to reach down to the mauve, so the lower mauve is considerably more translucent than the strips above.
Another appreciation for how well the pattern matches across the selvedges on this int dec chintz
There was a small but forgivable flaw in the print
Less forgivable was the big error I made in the way I pieced the top on one side
And I just realized that I forgot to take a detail picture of how I cut and hemmed a notch on top, about 4" from the outermost edges, so the finial could be accommodated while the curtain itself turns the corner and goes over the hanging bracket to the wall, because if I don't do that, then the neighborhood porch lights shine right into my eyes at night trough the gap between the curtain and the wall. (Yes, we leave the bedroom door open because we don't want to deal with cats demanding to be on the other side of the door all night.)
I would definitely have been happier if there had been enough unblemished chintz to make the curtains entirely from that--which would have been so much faster, too--but I'm not unhappy with this. And I have a few pieces of the chintz left that are large enough to make some potential throw pillows (as well as yards of the mauve glazed cotton), for that unknown future when we get a sofa that I care enough about to sew for. (I've been trying to talk myself for years into making a slipcover for the couch we have. It's a sectional that would need at least 35 yards. I have not yet blundered into appropriate thrift cloth for that.)
So nice to have these finished! Next will be the kitchen (faux French) door curtains. I have a length of synthetic slubby very curtainy thrifted ivory sheer that should work. Although I might sew something else first. I'm getting a little tired of long straight lines.
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