Six Cushions off to the Swiss Alps

Introduction to re-modelling/re-working second-hand curtains

Pretty much everyone knows that buying second-hand curtains is a very good and sustainable thing to do. It's good for your pocket and great for the planet and there are many ways curtains can be altered. Curtains might be too long but the colours are great so get them taken up. Silk curtains, especially if they have been in use for a decent length of time will probably be frayed up and down the leading edges. These will need to be cut off and a new edge created and this will help the curtains stay usable. This re-modelling/re-working helps make the curtains look better and last longer and doesn't need to cost the earth!

The Sewing Room, St Albans 

Divinely Vintage have recently met a wonderful woman called Shelley Kingston who lives just down the road from our showroom. Since getting to know her she has done alterations for us on behalf of a number of customers and all of them have been more than happy with the results. The results of this have made us realise that we need to help publicise her business so that potential customers looking to buy curtains from us know that there is someone close by who could easily do alterations etc. Details of Shelley's business, the Sewing Room, can be found HERE.

Curtains and cushions to Switzerland

Divinely Vintage sells second-hand curtains all over the world and one of the most interesting jobs has just been completed. Lorraine, an existing customer of ours, recently saw a link on our WhatsApp group to a new listing on our website. This was for 5 pairs of vintage paisley curtains with fabric de Le Cuona, an American Company. She immediately rang us and bought 4 pairs of the curtains and said that she needed them all taken up. Naturally we gave them to Shelley and she did the work and then said what about the excess fabric taken off the four pairs. We spoke to Lorraine and she said she wanted some cushion made for a sofa that was to be in the same room. I should point out that the 'room' is in a large barn high up in the Swiss alps above Geneva!

Shelley made two large and four smaller cushions using up most of the fabric and using the interlining underneath to produce extra 'plumpness'.  The re-modelling/re-working results you can see from the featured picture that accompanies this post. Her standard of work was brilliant and she even managed to get the paisley pattern in the centre of each cushion. Curtains and cushions have now been packed securely and start their journey off to Switzerland on Monday.

Project Managing the alterations

So that everyone is clear about how this would work let me immediately say that we would charge an admin fee of £25, no more and no less. Our money has been made by selling the curtains in the first instance and we are happy to liaise with Shelley on your behalf for any alterations.  The main thing to remember is the carpenters old adage "measure twice and cut once"!!

6 cushions bound for a barn in the Swiss Alps

Sustainability and the link to second-hand curtains

Sustainability and the link to second-hand curtains

Almost every day finds us reading about or listening to a news item about sustainability, carbon footprint and net zero. It is reaching the stage where nothing else seems to matter never mind the huge cost involved in achieving it.

Fortunately there is one way in which we can save money and contribute positively to the future of our planet!  Yes, of course, it's by buying and loving fabulous second-hand curtains! When I think of the cost of new curtains, often running into many thousands of pounds, why bother when there are some beautiful second-hand curtains around.

Recently we have taken in huge swathes of fine, often vintage, second-hand curtains and all of them want to be re-loved again. For example the five pairs of antique silk damask interlined curtains that came from a very large country estate in Northern Ireland. These all went off to a large cliff-top ex-hotel now massive house overlooking Cardigan Way in West Wales.

Then how can we forget the 5 antique red silk panels that once hung in a palace south-east of Madrid. They were looted in the latter stages of the Spanish Civil War in 1936/7. These disappeared until they turned up in the Famous El Rastro Flea Market in Madrid some 30 years ago. They were bought by clients of ours and were hanging in their Swiss house till they came to the UK.   The curtains came to us and 72 hours later they were on their way to a new life in a moated castle in southern Holland!

We have loads of clients in Scotland who have large draughty houses and buy second-hand curtains from us. Lots of the curtains they buy from us have actually come from other old draughty houses somewhere in Scotland.

Essentially the thing about sustainability and second-hand curtains is that all these beautiful curtains deserve to be re-loved again!

Antique Silk Curtain Panel from Spanish Palace - Picture 1"
Antique Silk Curtain Panel from Spanish Palace - Picture 2"
Antique Silk Curtain Panel from Spanish Palace - Picture 3"