French Fragonard Valance with Gingerbread Shelf

I realized that I had published the second part to this blog prior to this entry.  As my Grandmother would have said, 'the cart before the horse'.  I apologize for that.  This posting should have come first.  Read on.....

When I made the girl's duvets from the coral toile fabric, I had enough left over to complete a few more projects.  Since this fabric was very pricey, I used every last inch.

You might remember this fabric.

My oldest daughter collects snow globes.  I was having a hard time displaying them so I thought I could build a shelf over the window and attach a valance to it.  At the time, the shelf was filled with her most favorite globes.



                          To get started,  I purchased two gingerbread cornices at Lowe's.
I painted them high gloss white.  Then, Mr. Thrifty cut  a length of board a bit  wider than the window.  This too was painted out white.  Into each side of the gingerbread, he drilled matching holes to allow a small tension rod to be hung.

                      The Mr. did NOT drill the holes all the way through as shown in this next picture.  The tension rod fits perfectly between the the inside holes of the corbels. The shelf lays on top of the corbels.  If you were going to put heavier objects on the shelf, I would suggest screwing the shelf to the corbels.

  On this rod was gathered the valance.  I didn't have enough width to double the size of the window to have a gathered fabric curtain.  So, I took two different lengths and sewed them together to repeat the pattern.  You cannot see the seam in the middle of the fabric because of the folds.  This is a picture of the matched seams.

                 I lined the valance with ecru drapery cotton so the sun wouldn't harm the toile fabric. 

                 What is nice about the shelf is that I can change out the vignettes any time.