Highly Reccomended!



I have mentioned this book several times before, but I can't help but mention it again. If you really want curtains in your miniature scenes to look good, go to some of the used book websites and find this one. It was first published in 1889.  The original name was Practical Decorative Upholstery... but there is very little upholstery in this version. 

Sadly when they republished it in 1979 the title was changed to The Curtain Maker's Handbook.  I would love to see what they left out. 

I bought it in 79 or 80 and it has been my curtain making guide since then. 

I learned the pin board method of making draperies, curtains from Judee Williamson in a bed making class and after that there was no stopping me. 

With the help of this book, I have done a LOT of draperies and curtains.

It even has draperies for your mantle... I have a feeling that more than a few fires were started by having heavy curtains around the fireplace. But that's another story.

 They did leave a few furniture pieces in the later edition.  I did a number of these dressing tables.  There were diagrams for the base and patterns for the curtains and skirt.

I don't have any of them left to show you and this room is not getting one.  I want a home for the walnut carved dressing table. I used bass wood for the base.  Most of it would never be seen...

 This is more or less what the finished dressing table looked like.  I did several variations to match some of the beds that I made.

I like the curtains in this room. Evidently some asymmetry was in style at that time.

What is nice about the book is, it has patterns for a lot of the curtain pieces.  Yes.  I said pieces.  They were made to look like a continuous piece of fabric, but they were individual pieces.

That makes it much easier to do mini curtains this way. Tomorrow, I will start showing you how that was done...

We cheated and went to a movie this morning.  So I didn't get anything done in miniature.  Sorry.

I am fascinated by this particular set of draperies...The diagram for the top of the curtains in the center of the window shows how they made the curtains "baggy" at the top.  I kind of like that and would like to try it sometime, just to see if it could  be done in mini. 

So many ideas in this book!  I had better get serious and finish this room box quickly.  Then I can try out some of the other things in the book.

See you tomorrow, with a big box of pins, fabric and a pin board!