How to Dress a Window: Part II

Now the work/mess begins. There's cutting, recutting, stapling, pulling out staples, drawing and of course redrawing! Now I'm sure many people can do the same window with only 3 of the above steps, but it just doesn't work that way for me.



I did forget to show you the giant roll of batting I have in storage just for cornice projects. You can barely see the batting on the front and sides of the cornice (built from the 1x4's and air nailer). I like to add lining on top of the batting so the actual fabric goes on more smoothly. I know this particular window treatment really doesn't show the cornice since the valance hangs on it, but it just gives a more tailored look if it's padded.

The cornice starts looking a little better with the fabric going on. I know it looks really short, but you'll see later why it doesn't need to be any larger. It's really just taking the place of a decorative rod. The triangle of fabric behind is folded so bias strips of fabric can be cut. I used two different sizes of cording on this project. One was very small just to go along the outside edges of the valance to give a finished look to the bottom. The other covers a larger cord that will be used to go across the top and around the pleats.


Now that I have some of the "dirty work" out of the way, I pull out a long piece of lining onto the table to draw my valance pattern. This lining is a light weight blackout type, that will also be used in the valance to prevent the fabrics from showing through. I didn't want to see stripes through the back side and dots through the front. This step is called interlining, but many use a flannel for this. I do for most, but these fabrics didn't require more plushness, but they did need something to block light.

The next post will show how I "fit" the valance before cutting the real fabric, sewing them together and some steps inbetween.