Have you noticed that when it comes to planning curtains, drapes, or any fabric window treatment some people embrace the challenge with gusto and some faint?
For the fainters, take heart. This is easier than rocket science, easier than repairing a car and easier than tracking your budget.
But fainters eyes glaze over because they think figuring out how to put fabric on windows is an esoteric mystery, and therefore they allow themselves to be taken advantage of by “experts” who overcharge and help perpetuate that mystery.
If you can measure with a yardstick, sew a straight line with a sewing machine and cut reasonably accurately with scissors, you can save yourself hundreds and perhaps thousands of dollars.
A decorating shop charges upwards of $250 per window for a “topper”, a small amount of fabric hung on some kind of hardware to make a window look “dressed.” A discount shop might sell ready-mades in fabrics you can live with for $145 and up.
Did you know that the same window topper made with the same designer fabrics, like Waverly, Shoemaker, Greff and Gramercy can be bought at an outlet only two hours north of DC for an average price of $9.95 per yard or $25.00 each, lined, if they have your pattern in stock?
If your fabric is not already made up into the valence you desire, you can special order them for $25.00 labor per window plus the cost of the fabric. So my $250 has now shrunk to $35 each at the most.
At the Interior Alternative, fabriholics will salivate at the sight of hundreds, perhaps a thousand bolts of fabrics just sitting on shelves waiting to be bought. These are the same designs that are featured regularly in upscale decorating magazines. The only difference between first quality and the seconds sold here is that the dye lots may vary. But the seconds look and feel like first quality.
Did you know that the law allows even the most expensive first quality fabric to have imperfections? All the bolts I inspected, and I’ve been there twice in two weeks, were intact, gorgeously colored and beautifully made. One bolt had a rip in the first six inches. The clerk cut that off and discarded it before she began to measure my piece.
Besides fabrics, there are decorative ropes, ribbons, edgings, piping, fringes, tassels, and pillow forms.
Every month has a sale in the middle two weeks. For example, right now August 11-25th is sale time. All prints, lining, and trims are an additional 30 % off, upholstery, sheers and solids are 20 % off and there will be a one day sidewalk sale on Saturday August 25th to shop outside for a large selection of deeply discounted pillows, chairpads, bedding, valences and remnants. Of course, you can shop inside that day as well.
The month of November is a bonanza with a month long sale as the store gets ready for inventory. That would be a great time to stock up on fabrics for holiday creations, as placements, napkins, bed coverings, designer Christmas stockings, table runners, and all the other creative things you can dream of to make with fabric.
A sign reminds shoppers that “We feature seconds and discontinued fabric at tremendous savings with no adjustments for purchases prior to the sale period.”
My toile is in perfect condition, $9.95 a yard, not only classic but in the forefront of today’s fashions, so I win all around.
Don’t let a decorating store psyche you out and make you feel that your windows require lots of money and “impossible for you to get” know how to sew your curtains. Patterns are available wherever fabrics are sold and detail exactly how much fabric you need to buy. There are still sales people who give good customer service and can patiently help you through the measuring and buying process. Knowledgeable clerks will tell you what you need to do to make your own curtains or perhaps you have a neighbor, family member or close friend that can hold your hand through the process.
It’s so much easier to sew a curtain than to make clothing or hang wallpaper.
The Interior Alternative is at 1325 Old Cooch’s Bridge Road, Newark, DE, (302) 454-3232 and is open M-Sat 10 A.M.-5 P.M.
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