Late yesterday afternoon I decided I should probably take some pictures to serve as a visual aid for my pouf tutorial. I can say with all certainty that it was the poorest assortment of photos that have ever been taken and would have shown nothing other than what a horrible photographer I am.
For example:
I don’t even know what step I was attempting to photograph.
Honestly, I don’t even know that I have a clue what I’m doing or if my poufs will stand the test of time. They’ve only been up less than a week and could fall down at any moment. One good tug and I might have myself a drapery house of cards.
And I have to give one more shout out to The Nester who is the founder and inventor of window mistreatments. She has so many great, creative ways to mistreat windows that go way beyond what my limited decorative sensibilities can comprehend. Also, I was inspired by the pouf achieved by Katie at Harrington House. She made me aspire to heights of great poufiness after I saw her beautiful mistreatments. Lastly, I have to thank Holly for writing a great post full of links for great drapery tips.
Seriously, did I win an Academy Award or just make some cheap curtains? Maybe I should get over myself and my homemade draperies.
Anyway, after my poor attempt at documenting the process in photographs, I decided I was going to have to do a video tutorial even though I semi-swore to myself that I’d never do another one after the scarf-tying video. It’s just too painful to hear the way the camera makes me lisp combined with video evidence of how flat my hair looks by the end of the day. But because I love y’all, I recruited an amateur videographer to help me out.
Disclaimer: If you’ve never suffered from vertigo, you will after watching this video.
The Pouf from Big Mama on Vimeo.
A few things:
1. The camerawoman could not be cuter is spite of her tendency to interrupt and put in her two cents. She also doesn’t really get the concept of holding the camera steady or not getting your own feet in the video.
2. I don’t have a lisp in real life. It’s the camera. I promise.
3. However, my hair is that flat.
4. If the poor quality of the video isn’t enough to guarantee I’ll never be featured on HGTV, then the chip clip sealed my fate. Also, my Doritos are now stale.
5. I had to cut the video short due to uploading difficulties (most likely due to user error), so I’ll explain the final steps as best as I can. Continue to clip the fabric across the top, making sure you have all the folds in the ring clip (or chip clip) until you get to the other side. Then fold in the outer edge like you did at the beginning and clip it. Carefully, CAREFULLY, hang the rings on your curtain rod and then just gently pull out the folds of fabric to make the poufs. There is really no scientific method, just pouf and pull until it looks like you want it to look. It definitely works better if you have some fabric with a little bit of substance to it because the linen stuff I used in the video would have given me virtually no pouf at all since the fabric is so flimsy.
6. There is a very good chance that I have no idea what I’m doing. In fact, I’d say it’s 70-30 that there’s a better way to make a pouf, but my lack of knowledge has never really stopped me from sharing information.
7. If you really want to do this on a budget, then check out how cute The Nester made these draperies look without even using a curtain rod. Oh, and she also hot glues trim to her edges on occasion which looks beautiful but is beyond my skill level unless I decide to give myself second degree burns one afternoon.
8. I have nothing else to add. Carry on.