Fabric Shopping Tip

If you've ever purchased your own fabric for curtains you know the time and patience it takes to walk up and down the fabric store aisles!  You go into the store with one idea in your mind and then see things you might not have thought of so now you are overwhelmed with the possibilities!  Not to mention you're in a store surrounded by colors that aren't in the room you're planning to make curtains for and let's not even discuss the terrible lighting!

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For me, the toughest part is picturing what the fabric will look like gathered as a curtain.  In the store the material is "flat" but we rarely hang our curtains in a perfect flat line.  The large bolts are easy to unroll and gather yourself to get a visual but those little square samples in the special order section are not as easy!  


While shopping with my Mom the other day we wanted to compare three fabric options for her dining room windows.  The curtains are almost always open so we needed to be able to visualize how the pattern would actually look scrunched up.  I quickly took advantage of those annoying hangers the samples hang on and pleated the curtains up...now we could see and compare how they would each look. 

I would always shy away from these little sampled because I couldn't picture how it would look, but now with this trick I might just give them a second chance!  Unfortunately, neither of us were in "love" with any of these options so we are actually still on the hunt for her perfect dining room curtains! 

We have just a few more days till the end of our Patriotic Link-Up Party!  Take a minute to pop over and see all the great links...there's so many awesome ideas I'm having trouble picking a recipe to use for July 4th!  Also remember to share your Patriotic posts!