The Language Of Cloth

What Perfect Timing.......as I was cleaning out old photos from my multitudinous computer files, I ran into these images of a valance and some drapes I had made for Lynne Rutter last summer when I was working in a little shop under her lovely house.

This valance is made from vintage Vietnamese fabric that she got from one of her friend Dan's trunk shows: The Language Of Cloth

The fabric is beautiful and precious and we wanted to put it up so that Lynne could see it in all its' splendor, but I didn't want to wreck it. I wanted her to be able to take it down and use it for something else later on if she wanted to - so I lined the back with blackout curtain fabric to protect the fibers from the sun and we used velcro to attach the runner to the backboard over the drapery hardware. We may have used a staple or two in well disguised places to take care of the buckling problem. I didn't see that this would ruin the tapestry and I really didn't want to handle the fabric any more than I needed to. The backing was hand tacked to the face fabric.

The drapes are a wonderful linen from Discount Fabrics. I cut it up into 4 pieces, surged the edges, and threw it into a hot washer and dryer. It came out looking a little rustic and now she can just throw them in when they get dirty without a care!




The back door curtain is a vintage tablecloth that we hung to keep out the sun and keep in the charm......I love using older textiles that may be worn a bit. It adds so much warmth to a room - not that Lynne's kitchen would ever suffer from the lack of charm or warmth - but, well, its such a nice touch!

kc.costumecouture@gmail.com