Posts Tagged ‘home maintenance’
Sew tabs with café curtains
November 7, 2011 | 
Author A method more usually associated with café curtains is to sew tabs along the top edge for the pole to go through. Make up the basic curtain first. The length will be from a point about 7.5cm below the rod to the bottom point of the finished curtain. Add 15cm for a double 7.5cm bottom hem, and 2.5 cm for a top hem. Café curtains should not be too full, so 1 ½ times the width of the pole is ample. Add 10cm for a double 2.5cm hem at each side. Café curtain look best from the outside if they are lined – bagged type of lining works well. Make up the curtains except for the top edge. Make the tabs from the same fabric as the curtains. Cut enough tabs to fit at 15cm intervals along the width of the curtain. Measure the circumference of the pole; add on a total of 2.5cm for seam allowances and another 5cm for movement.
This will be the length of the piece of material to cut for each tab. The finished width will be about 6 or 7cm, so double that for the two sides and add 2.5cm for seam allowances. Fold each piece in two along its length, right sides together, without creasing the fold. Sew along the seam 1.5cm in from the edge. Open out the seam and press it. Turn the tab inside out, position the seam down the center of the tab, and press down the side folds. Press towards each other by 2.5cm. Pin the tabs 15cm apart and ensure that all the raw edges are enclosed allow a 1.25cm seam allowances at each end of the tab. Try the curtain on the pole to see that all the tabs lie comfortably. Then remove it and stitch along the top edge of the curtain so that the tabs are fixed in place and the top edge is closed.
Staying Organized
After you have begun to organize your home and life, you must maintain your organizational efforts or risk ending up right back where you started. The tips in this passage will show you how to stay organized as you go forward. In order to keep your momentum going, adopt these strategies for keeping your home the way you want it.
Keep get rid of Clutter
There are some ways that help you how to identify and deal with clutter in various areas of your home. To continue your organizational efforts, periodically go through your entire home and distinguish between the belongings you need or want and items that can be thrown away, donated filed, or put into storage. If an item hasn’t been used in several months or years and has no importance or sentimental value, get rid of it!
Change your behavior
Figure out what’s causing the clutter in your home and take steps to eliminate the mess. For example, when you get undressed at night, instead of throwing your dirty clothing on the floor, place the clothes directly in a laundry hamper. Remember, clutter comes in many different forms. After you’ve identified the cluttered areas of your home, figure out the causes and address the underlying issues.
Make a proper place for everything
After you decide where something belongs, you’ll have little trouble finding it, so establish a home for everything in your house. As soon as you’re done using the tool, piece of paper, or any other object, make sure you put it back in its proper place. Adopting this practice not only helps you stay organized, it also greatly reduces the amount of time you will spend cleaning your home in the future.
Posted in General Home Tips | 
Tags: home care, home maintenance, home tasks, small tasks in home, suggestions to maintain home, tips | 
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Duvet cover and Cot Lining
By comparison, making an outer cover for the duvet is simple. Buy polyester/cotton sheeting as large as the duvet, adding a 10cm margin to both the width and length to avoid restricting the duvet itself. Sew it round the top and two sides making a French seam. Turn in the allowance at the bottom edge into a double 2cm seam, stitch up about 10cm at each side and attach poppered tape or Velcro to close the opening.
Cot Lining
Washable and reversible cotton/polyester quilting is by far the best material for lining a cot as its padding will prevent the baby hurting itself against the cot bars, and it will keep out draughts. You will need fabric to go round the four sides of the cot but it need not go right up to the top of the bars about 30cm high is easily enough to protect a baby’s head. The base of the cot lining goes under the mattress so it can be made from lining material, calico or other washable left-over fabric. You will also need 2.5m of ribbon to match the quilting. Cut the fabric for the four sides and the base, including seam allowances of 1.25cm. Join the two short ends to one of the long sides so that the right side of the seams will face in towards the cot. Trim the seams, press them and cover them with binding to neaten them. Also bind the raw edges of the two end pieces and round the top edge. Sew the base to these three sides, right side of quilting to under side of the base – all the raw edges will eventually be hidden by the mattress. Turn the structure so that the seams are inside. Then deal with the remaining long side, first binding its side and top edges and then sewing it to the open edge of the base, wrong sides together. The fourth side has to be unattached, except at the base, so that when the side of the cot is let down it doesn’t get in the way. Cut the ribbon into 12 equal lengths and attach six in three pairs down each long side of the cot lining at each corner and at or near the middle to correspond with a cot bar. The ribbons are tied round the bars to keep the lining in place.
Posted in Soft Furnishings | Tags: bed room decor, bedding, decorating your home, home care, home maintenance | No Comments »
Duvet
You may think it worthwhile to make your own duvet only if you have an unusually large bed. Alternatively you may want to convert an old eiderdown but you will have to supplement the filling as an equivalent duvet needs more down. The duvet consists of a channeled bag filled with goose or duck down, feathers or synthetic material. Goose down is considered the best and most luxurious because it is the lightest, but synthetic filling is the cheapest, easiest to handle and is washable.
The bag is divided into compartments to keep the feathers evenly distributed. Its light weight and flexibility enable it to sink around the sleeper’s body, eliminating pockets of cold air and providing perfect insulation. You can buy the type of filling you prefer from a good upholstery supplier. The fabric used for the duvet itself must down proof cambric which is waxed on one side to stop the sharp quills poking through. The cambric is covered by a second bag which is taken for washing. To decide upon the size of the duvet, measure the bed from top to bottom and from side to side. Add at least 20cm at the bottom of the bed for the overhang, and at least 40cm to the width measurement for the overhang at the two sides.
It relies on its weight to seal up the gaps at the side of the bed and it you have insufficient overhang; you may well find that the edges are not sealed. To all these measurements add a further 2.5cm at the top, bottom and both sides for the seam turnings. Cut two pieces of cambric to these measurements. Sew them with French seams around the two sides and top. If the cambric is too small to make the bag from one width, sew widths together using a French seam, joining right sides together first. Trim the seam turnings turn the bag inside out and machine sews round the seams again.
Posted in Bedding | Tags: decorating your home, home care, home maintenance, soft furnishings | No Comments »
Bordered Pillowcase
Again, you will have to make this type of pillowcase from three pieces of material. The bottom piece should be the width and length of the pillow plus 8cm for turnings, and room for getting the pillow in and out. The top should have an extra 14cm added to the width and length which allows for borders of 6cm and a total of 2cm of turnings. The pocket section should be the width of the bottom section and 16cm deep. First machine sew a narrow hem along one of the short ends of the bottom piece, then along one of the long ends of the pocket.
Fold under all the edges of the larger top piece by 1cm and press down another 7cm. Miter the corners and sew down the mitering to form a neat border. Take the pocket piece and, with wrong sides together, slip the raw edges between the folded borders at one end. Tack it and then machine-zigzag only along the long edge. Now place the prepared bottom section on the top piece, wrong sides together, so that the hem is at the pocket end. Insert all the raw edges evenly between the borders. Tack them in position and zigzag stitch to finish. All the raw edges are thus hidden within the border. If you want the border to be in a contrasting material cut four strips the length of the pillow plus twice the depth of the border, plus 1cm for two 1cm turnings.
Each piece should be about 14cm wide. The top and bottom sections of the case will have the same dimensions this time. Fold the strips in half lengthwise, and miter and stitch the corners, right sides together. Turn and press the border, and slip it between the prepared main sections of the pillow case. the inside edges of this version will be raw so you should machine zigzag them or overcast them by hand. Instead of fabric strips you could use lengths of rushed lace and slip a single layer of it between the top and bottom of the pillowcase.
Posted in Soft Furnishings | Tags: home care, home improvement, home maintenance, small tasks in home | No Comments »
Tracks and Fittings
There is a bewildering array of curtain track fittings hanging system, and manufacturers change their ranges often. So the best way to choose is to study the range of tracks currently available. Your choice will depend on your decorating scheme, on the type of heading and on the weight of the fabric. These will dictate the style and material of the track it might be aluminum, plastic, brass, brass plated metal, or wood. You might prefer a pole which would look elegant in some period settings, especially when used to carry full length curtains in a large room. If you prefer the convenience of a track but the appearance of a pole, there is available a half-section pole which conceals a track mechanism. If you are using a pelmet, a board will probably be essential to carry the weight, but a valance can be carried on a curtain track.
Tracks are available that can be bent to follow the contours of the area, such as a bay or dormer window. For a dormer window, a continuation of the track round the sides allows you to draw the curtain completely away from the window in order to let in as much light as possible. If you prefer detachable linings, you may find it useful to install the type of track which takes a special kind of hooked glider on which you can hang both the curtain and the lining. Most manufacturers make a system for opening and closing the curtains with a single pulled cord which will save the fabric from handling. You should also consider this if the curtains are very tall or heavy. It is possible to install an electrically operated opening and closing system. if you are to close and open the curtains by hand, you can fit rods to the inner edge hooks to avoid handling and possibly soiling the curtain fabric itself. Or you can fit a tasseled draw-cord.
Posted in Curtains and Blinds | Tags: decorating your home, decorations, home care, home maintenance, interior design ideas, window coverage, window decor | No Comments »
Paint Types and Systems
Water based paint has the pigment and binder suspended in water as tiny droplets. It is usually called emulsion paint. Solvent based alkyd paint has pigment and binder dissolved in petroleum based solvent, and takes longer to dry than water based paint. Because of growing awareness of the risks of inhaling solvents, the use of this paint is declining in popularity and is already legally restricted in some countries. Paint also contains a range of other additives to improve its performance. The most notable is one that makes the paint thixotropic or non-drip allowing more paint to be loaded on to the brush and a thicker paint film to be applied one coat of this is often sufficient.
Paint systems
A single coat of paint is too thin to form a durable paint film. To provide adequate cover and performance there must be a paint system containing of several coats. What these are depends on the type of paint used, and on the surface being painted. The first coat is a sealer, which is used where necessary to seal the natural resin in wood, or to prevent the paint from soaking into prevent the paint from soaking into a porous surface. The second coat is a primer this provides a good key to which the paint film can stick. On metal surfaces, this also stops the metal corroding or oxidizing. A primer can, in addition, act as a sealer. The third coat is the undercoat, which builds up the film to form a flexible, non-absorbent base of uniform color close to that of the fourth and final layer, the top coat, which gives the actual finish and color.
Posted in Painting | Tags: decorating your home, decorations, home care, home improvement, home maintenance, interior design ideas | No Comments »