How Doing it Yourself can SAVE you Money!
We are in a time when people are concerned about their jobs and income. Many of us are looking for ways to save money by doing things ourselves we may have paid to have done it the past. Sewing can be a great skill to have with this in mind. Hiring a decorator costs money. And, having any curtains or pillows or bed clothes made for you, is unbelievably expensive. (I promise that I will post pictures ASAP) This is too boring to read without illustrations….well maybe not boring, but far easier to understand if you have photos to look at.)
You can save a lot by making your own roman shades or other items. I made 9 roman shades for a sunroom I had. I designed them to pull up from the bottom or drop down from the top. That way, I could still have light and an open feel, but gain privacy on the street side of the house. There are some custom mail order services which will make your curtains and shades to order. One very good one is Smith & Noble. They do quality work with a quick turn around. They have very nice fabric options, etc. I looked up the price of one roman shade. At the time, they offered top down OR bottom up options separately, not together. One shade with similar measurements to mine would cost $250 at that time (7 yrs ago?)
I made 9 shades from some sale fabric I liked, and spent approximately $100 for all 9, including the hardware, wood (for mounting boards and slats at the top and bottom of the shades) and cording. I even made shade pulls for the ends of the cords out of Fimo clay. I was able to use a color which went well with the fabric. Make them the size I wanted and then set the clay by baking it in the oven. Didn’t smell the best, but the weather was warm so I opened the windows.
I reupholstered a wing chair I have. It is a quality piece originally from Ethan Allen. The fabric on it was a large bargello weave. There was a tack line along the wings, arms and base of the chair. It took me forever to get the tacks out. They were only decorative. I think there were over 300 of them. I never liked the tacks because they would rub along the bone between my elbow and wrist. I saw some fabric I liked at Fabric Place and bought enough for the chair. I thought I would do it myself. Then I changed my mind and decided to have it done for me. I was going to cost me $585 without the cost of the fabric. I waited until I could put aside that kind of money for it. I forgot about it for awhile. That was until almost 3 years ago. I had a student who came to me, who was taking an upholstery class at the Fabric Place in Framingham at the same time as mine. It was 10 weeks long. Toward the end of the FP class, she told me that I needed to help her finish her wing chair. I told her that I wasn’t sure if I was the best person to help her. She insisted that I could. And, that I should do my own chair for practice. I had worked a short time for an upholsterer in Northern Wisconsin in 1988. I had done cushions and foot stools and many other projects. But, I was a little shy about a wing chair. They are a more advance item to work on. I have a lot of books on upholstery. I find it very interesting and I have done a few slipcovers.
So, she convinced me to do it. I focused all my spare sewing time on it for 10 days. I took very good notes as I removed each part of the original cover, so that I could remember how things went together. I saved all the fabric panels to use as patterns. What surprised me, is that once the agony of extracting so many tacks and staples was over, that upholstering the piece was far easier than slipcovering it would have been. You cut panels of fabric larger than you need in a shape similar to the original. Staple it to the frame in a certain order and then cut away the excess fabric. It requires very little actual sewing! The only things I needed to sew were piping/welting and the cushion cover and arm covers. It came out very well. And, even though I spent time on the project, I enjoyed it and continue to enjoy the chair in my Living Room. One funny thing was that I thought I had bought the fabric 2 years before. Fabric Place would always place a sales slip on the fabric when you bought it. I hadn’t removed the slip and when I looked at it, I realized that I had bought the fabric 4 years earlier! You must use no fabric before its time..it must age appropriately…..(that’s a take-off from an old wine commercial with Orson Welles saying, “We sell no wine before its time.”)
Simpler projects can be fast and easy. I made my dog 2 different beds from fabric left over from other projects. I’ve made pillows, valances, bookcase curtains on swing rods. Placemats, table runners, tablecloths, napkins, sewing machine covers, book covers, (I don’t want people knowing what I really read, “fluff,” or as one of my HS students calls it “Chiclet reading.”) It’s hard to even think or list all the home items I have made. Oh, another is a bean bag ottoman cube. I have one in my school’s living room area. It is very comfortable to rest your feet on and is simply a cube.
Bedroom items: shams, quilts, duvet covers, dust ruffles, curtains, throw pillows, hanger covers for those clothes which are not worn often, so you want to cover the shoulders to keep off the dust.
Bathroom: Shower curtains (to be used with a waterproof liner), window curtains or roman shades or valances, sink skirts, cosmetic bags or a hanging storage bag with pockets for all of the separate items.
I could go on, and I probably will. But, it is getting late and I do want to post some pictures for you. So, I will sign off for now.
