Sew what, it's a valance!

It seems I'm often being commissioned by my sister for sewing projects. Some are easier than others but I don't mind helping out. I often learn new sewing techniques with these projects anyway. Somehow though, I never get paid for these commissions. What's up with that? Love ya, B!

She wanted to spruce up the kitchen with a new color scheme. The cheery yellow fabric is from Tonic Living. It's called Emilio and retails for $16 yard. I followed this tutorial to sew the faux, or fixed, Roman shade. It came together a little slower than I had anticipated. I was given very specific measurements. Since the shade appears in a prominent position in her home, I didn't want it to look wonky. I spent a lot of time fixing the folds exactly. When you start gathering up the fabric for these folds, you lose a lot of yardage. She sent me a yard of fabric and I, luckily, eeked out a 20" drop from the rod. The picture below is post-shipping halfway across the country so don't mind the creases.

Pretty cute, right? I like it so much I think I'm going to make one for my own kitchen window, if I could ever latch onto fabric that I like for that space. Orange walls are hard to coordinate sometimes.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the sunniness it brings to your kitchen, B! Also, even more exciting than my finishing this project and now being able to move back to sewing projects for myself, is that I will be in Austin to visit this curtain in less than two weeks. Can't wait! My nephew is nearly 10 months old. We'll see if 4 days with him changes my views on children........