shadylady2u - Thank you. I am trying to learn more about sewing with every project that comes up! It's helpful for me to hear from all of you sewers who have experience and are willing to share. I am going to make sure the first edge of fabric is square/straight before I do any measuring for cutting that first panel. I will follow what you and the others said and cut 126" so I will have room for adjustments of the pattern. I am glad you brought up the header size. I was wondering about that (as well as the hem size). I bought a book from JoAnn's Fabric store several years ago. It's called "Windows with Ease". In the section on Flat Panel Curtains, there's a chart for hem depths. It includes method of hanging (clip on rings in my case) and curtain length (brushing floor in my case). For bottom hem allowance it says 8", upper hem allowance 3". In the directions, it says to "Press under a double-fold hem in the upper edge...." I also read & looked carefully at the pictures in the book describing How to Stitch a Double-Fold Hem. Their pictures & descriptions shows a 3" hem allowance ending up with a 1-1/2" hem. A 8" allowance ends up being a 4" hem. I followed their directions a few years ago when I made my DR & LR flat panel floor length drapes (using clip rings). They look fine, except I felt that the finished top hem (where the clip rings attach) looks too skimpy (only 1-1/2"). The finished bottom hem is 4" and looks good to me, but I could see that an inch or two greater may look better. BTW, my home is not formal...more on the casual side. For a finished header (not "allowance") and a finished bottom hem, what would you suggest? Happy Memorial Day to all! Laurie

One way to paint with resale in mind and still have color in rooms is to paint the most difficult ones in colors considered "acceptable" for your market and to reserve the color you want for easier-to-paint rooms. As an example, our master bedroom has a beamed ceiling, with the beams set into the walls. That means that there are three wall surfaces per beam requiring cutting in. Sixteen long beams, including one at each end of the room running across the length. This room had been an uninteresting white, and I redid it in a neutral mushroom color. For the cutting in required around the beams -- white to mushroom means two coats, so that worked out to the equivalent of 64 beams to meticulously paint around. Part of the wall in which five or six beams were set was on the other side of an open stairwell. So, regardless of what other colors I might conceivably have envisioned this room, there was no way it was going to be anything other than a classic, warm neutral! I do agree with posters who argue for painting for yourself. I knew within weeks of moving into our former house that it was a huge, huge mistake. Roughly 18 years later, we moved. The whole time, I lived with neutrals that weren't particularly interesting because every year I thought: THIS is the year in which we move. But are neutral rooms always necessary for resale? Someone bought an 18th C. stone house on the river with the intention of reselling. I saw it under its previous owner and was charmed by its quirks and character. The new owner has certainly improved it both structurally and mechanically, and floors are new, as is the paint job. Alas, there is absolutely no charm left. Every wall is an off white, all the trim is white...the owner may have thought potential buyers would easily envision their own things in these spaces, but I thought that every room required a new paint job. Isn't that back to square one? By contrast, one of the best real estate agents in the area lived near our former house. She sold her house very quickly. The outside was purple, with deep lavender trim. I recall a dark red room, or maybe it was orange. Another room was a bright green or bright blue....Granted, the town is one in which people want to live, not too many places come on the market, and the market itself was very different. But still...orange...blue...in fact, there may not have been a single neutral room in the place. I think the sunroom was a dark green. If you crave color but think you might want to move, just remember, too: with some exceptions, painting doesn't take very long.

Hi Meg, I own a custom window treatment business and fabricate them myself (most of the time!) So as a window treatment seamstress/designer I can see how this could happen. I had it happen to me not long ago but didn't forsee that I would have a problem with the drapes until I test hung them in my workroom. At that point I realized that they looked like I hadn't pleated them correctly because the colors in the plaid weren't lining up the same horizontally across the 2 widths. What I wound up having to do was to turn the 2nd panel upside down (it was non directional buffalo plaid) and so that when the panel was pleated the correct dominant colorway would show horizontally across both panels. I know this is too much information! I don't think your fabricators would be able to do that because your pattern would be different - the leaves would be on the bottom instead of the top. Do you know if the sheers were 118" railroaded? Or were they a 54" width? I can't imagine that a reputable drapery company would use a workroom who doesn't do the basics - like cutting drapery widths at the same repeat!!! I will be anxious to see how they resolve your problem.

I like your neutral white palette with black accents... Classic color combo- a light, a bright and a dark,. You need a BRIGHT 1) "Weekly rental house" So, there will be advertising pics? I'd accent your rooms with a citrus palette and shades there of. I'm not suggesting you purchase new art, necessarily. Just add colored accents. For a fluid house scheme, use different shades of a color in all the rooms. Choose warm citrus colors! Why? Warm colors project from the page, where as cool colors recede. Think I'm joking? Compare wedding photos of flowers held by bridesmaids.... Yellow jumps off the pages and red, white, greens, pinks fade to the background. I'd avoid "citrus pink" accents as it lacks universal appeal! but salmon is ok. 2) SKIP the floral bedcoverings and opt for a white duvet- Walmart. Patterned bed coverings demand the eye focuses on the bed, not the big room surrounding the bed. Patterned beds look like a well designed bed, not a well-designed room. When washed excessively, they look faded. 3) I like the bedding you have... Or ..,White duvets looks crisp and clean and inviting to a guest, like a hotel welcome. 4) DIY pillows- it's inexpensive to purchase coordinating fabrics and cover pillows. Due to its recent popularity, it is easy to find a gray fabric prints (color + gray) No need to match the colors, just use the shades of the same color.- it will work! Pics below are white & citrus, with black or gray accents. Fit four beds in one room-