Crazy Beaver Curtains and Vintage Sewing Valances

I have finally taken pictures of some of the other things I made for the new house! 

This is one of the valances that I made for our homeschooling/sewing/play room. I LOVE the print!!! It's all vintage sewing items. Printed burlap is the best!!!

I made this valance the same way I did the DIY No Sew Valance. SO much better than putting the burlap through your machine!!!
I also used the decorative nails to hang the valance instead of a curtain rod.

Here is the crazy beaver print that the girls picked for their room!!! Dumby me didn't get quite enough fabric so there's only one panel per window. I tried going back but the beaver print was long gone. :/ 
It's OK, though. The girls love their new curtains and Deanna assures me that she never opens them anyway. She doesn't like the light. LOL


I've got 1,001 things going on here BUT I will have 2 new tutorials coming up in the next couple of weeks. Not to mention, we start a new homeschool year today!! Wooo hooo!! Lots of homeschooling posts coming up, too!!! And there will always be the special Friday posts! :D


                           HAVE FUN SEWING AND HOMESCHOOLING!!!!

DIY No Sew Burlap Valance Tutorial

I am very excited to bring you this SO SIMPLE, SO EASY tutorial. I am loving the way it turned out!!!

We moved and got new furniture so I needed something new for our windows. Our living room window is 9 ft long!!! And we have this amazing view that we didn't want to completely block. What to do.... AH!! A valance! But not just any valance! A chocolate burlap valance!! 

Thank goodness Hancock's was having a 50% off sale!! I bought 7 yards of chocolate burlap for about $25!! Enough to do the valance and a straight panel for the other living room window.

I have sewn with burlap before and while it's a fairly easy fabric to work with, it makes a HUGE mess going through a sewing machine. That's when I decided to go no-sew with them!

I bought fusible bond for heavy fabrics.

This was my first time using the fusible bond so I was a little nervous at first. I should not have been. It was SO FREAKIN' EASY!!! You just iron it right in, it couldn't have been more simple. 

For my 9 ft window I used about 4 yards of the burlap. It had a very wide width so I decided to turn it sideways and use the width as my length, if that makes sense.... In other words, the selvage became my hem. 

All you do is cut the length of fusible bond that you need and place it between the fabric. Add a hot iron and VIOLA! You have a hem!

Since I was working with such a ginormous piece, it took several cuts of fusible bond.... LOL 

This is what the hem looks like afterward. 

For the space where the curtain rod goes, I just measured and folded the top over. Then I placed my fusible bond on the edges and ironed. 

Easy Peasy!!! 

After I put the valance up I took some gold toned ribbon and looped it under the valance, tying it at the top. 

I have to say that I absolutely LOOOOVE it!!! The Hubby thinks I should pull it up even more. He wants to see more of the view. 

I am still trying to decide if I like the other window.... It just looks a little wrong to me somehow. If I figure it out I'll post about it and let you know!!!