This morning I finished my first shade using the Simple Blinds pattern from two straight lines -- I'm planning on using the same method for the window quilts, & had actually not been planning on making a dining room shade like this, but then the string on the cheap Ikea roman shade that never really worked that well anyway broke, & I had some greenish-greyish canvas hanging around, so a test-run seemed in order. This particular color in this particular spot in my house turns out to be very hard to photograph, but you get the idea (except please don't get the idea that it's discolored, that's just a nasty trick of the light). The piecing is the result of my ongoing failure to properly do fabric math, done haphazardly because I expected it to end up on the back of the shade (which it still might, but for now, we like it). I actually love the way the piecing looks when the shade is all tidily folded up & hanging from the bottom-most loops, but I will have to wait until -- well, I don't actually know what the exact right lighting condition will be, something involving less gloom inside & less glare outside, I guess -- I'll just keep trying to get a picture of my window treatment at its most charming, ok?
At any rate, it was easy as anything to make, & works quite well with a double layer of canvas (I love how nice & even it is when folded up), though I may still add a third loop/knob across the top to get rid of that dip or else maybe run a dowel across the top (I think this would be much less of an issue with a lighter fabric).
I thought seriously about waiting to post that first picture until I could get a more attractive shot of the shade + the room in general (though that's more or less what it looks like in the dining room, really), but it gives me context to post this closeup of the play-doh guy. My mom & my daughter made him a long time ago (I am not sure who did what, although the neatly cut out body vs. the excellently uneven & googly eyes give a clue), & when I randomly stuck him up on the picture thingy, I didn't realize how much I would grow to truly love him.
Aside from being a googly-eyed play-doh guy, the other way to my heart is to buy me pretty craft books, which is clearly the angle my husband was playing when he bought me this one on our last date night (or, truthfully, it was the angle I was playing when I wandered up to him clutching this book & said "how much do you love me?") I will admit that once out from under the influence of date night (+ a perfectly cold, perfectly limed Corona), I am less bowled over by the projects in this book, but the pictures are very, very pretty (the author is a regular contributor to Marie Claire Idees, it says)
& the general sewing info & specific project how-tos are really clearly & usefully illustrated.
The projects are mostly straightforward home dec stuff, though; there are a few interesting little things (like that ottoman in the picture above), but also lots of cushions & duvet covers that seem to mostly depend on interesting fabric. I'm hopeful that there may be a technique trick or two that I can pick up from the directions (there are a lot of directions in this book), but in the end it mostly makes me impatient for the next issue of MCI to hit the stands.
oh, you guys go on dates to barnes & noble, too?
:)
Posted by: kirsten | January 09, 2007 at 10:41 AM
I bought that book too, same day, just during school time earlier that morning. Now, how's THAT for some added blogging synchronicity?! Everything you said about it is so true. I probably won't be sewing many of the projects in it, but the whole book makes me WANT to sew, which is why I couldn't resist it.
Posted by: blair | January 09, 2007 at 09:51 PM
That is exactly my reaction to that book as well, alas.
Posted by: Alicia P. | January 21, 2007 at 05:16 PM