Teeny Tiny Curtains....!

Pursuing A Dream....

Some of you May recall, Dear Readers, my mentioning that I was not satisfied with the paper curtains that are provided with the Secret Christmas House kits. To begin with, they are very "fussy" and are just not my style. But more importantly in my opinion, they are Flat! As you may have noticed, I have been trying to add a third dimension to many of the pieces that come in these kits...(thickness to books, roundness to teapots and candlesticks, depth to picture frames and door frames to name a few!), so it should come as no surprise that I would want my curtains to appear more realistic and have at least a little bit of dimension to them! How to achieve this and with what materials has been the pursuit of many hours both waking and asleep. There was no way to finish decorating the Secret Christmas House without adding curtains.... and they needed to be added before the furnishings could be put in place. And in case you had not noticed... the Christmas Season is fast approaching! Would I give up on completing this project this year? Or would I try yet again to make suitable curtains....
The above picture will show you some of my attempts. They are a bit embarrassing.... made from coffee filter paper smushed into a curtain-ish shape and painted a color approximating the ones in the kit. Even with lovely gold trim, they just looked horrid when tested in place...

No, this just would Not work!

I decided I was going to need to be very precise with the "folds" of the material... 

and I also decided I would prefer to use cloth if possible!

From there I tried many methods of making the material fold like pleated drapes.... 

I even tried winding the wet cloth through the teeth of a comb while it dried!

But none succeeded in giving me a small enough pleat.

Finally, last weekend I decide to try making a wire "jig" 

to hold the material in place as it dried.

I thought that perhaps if I made a frame of wires in a curtain-drape shape,

 and placed the wet cloth over the wires....

Using a method described by Elizabeth of Studio E Blog...

 (The material is dipped in a watered down glue.... 

thank you for the tutorial Elizabeth!)

And then laid more wires over the wet cloth....

 pressed into the valleys between the first wires.... 

to hold the wet cloth down while it dried....

Then maybe it would dry with small enough pleats!

I also tested the method of just using pins

 to hold the fabric in pleated folds.... 

(which you can see above to the right.)

This method left large pin holes in the cloth 

and not enough consistency to the pleats.

But the wires method seemed to work fairly well...!

You can sort of see the test curtains here.... 

I know they are very pale and you can hardly see the pleats....

 but it shows promise!

I tested more versions with coffee filter paper.... 

but did not like the results.

Paper is out... cloth is in.

I quickly made more with the cloth...

Well, not quickly... it takes a couple of hours for the cloth to dry!

Here I am using an antique silk charmeuse scrap...

it has a very fine weave and a soft and malleable hand.... 

and is also a cream color that could be painted if necessary....

Here I am testing one of the dried panels in the parlor..... 

I think I am getting somewhere!

How about two panels together....?

I think these could work!

Now, Dear Readers, I am getting Excited!!!

Here I am testing the pale silk in the Sitting Room again... 

but I am not happy with the color for this room... 

it is too pale. The curtain just disappears.

And I am not really happy with the way it looks painted... 

that will serve as a last resort... 

but first I want to try other fabrics.

Starting with a green silk....

 the very same green silk I used for the bed curtains 

for the Tree House bed!

Here you can see several of the different versions 

together with the original printed paper kit versions.

The green silk is too "yellow" for the Sitting Room... 

so I try them in the Dining Room....

Oh my...!!! 

What a perfect color match!!!

And the fringe even looks okay!!!

So now I need to make the curtain rods.....

Like so...!

And testing the Parlor curtains......

I have decided to go with the cream color in this room... 

it tones down the pink a bit and won't compete with the Tree....!

And now I have Glued them in place!

The Sitting Room curtains wanted to be a darker green....

Here you can see it drying in the wire "jig"....

And in place in the Sitting Room.

It is hard to get the colors to look the way they are in RL... 

this appears a bit too blue in this light.

But the "green" in this room is a very blue-toned green!

But I must say, Dear Readers,

 I just want to Crow about these curtains!!!

Even though they will practically "disappear" 

when the room is all furnished...

 I think they look Perfect!

See what I mean? 

You hardly notice the curtains!

Here, come a little closer.....

I just Love the way the Light shines through them!

Well, Dear Readers, 

I just can't tell you how Excited I am

 by these tiny bits of cloth...

Catching that Dream....

Teeny Tiny Curtains!