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Billowing festoon nets provide privacy but admit light, and give a softness of line which is perhaps particularly suited to bedrooms. In living rooms, a large floor length window may be necessary to do justice to the effect. It is best to look on them as a permanent feature – if you want something similar that can be lowered and raised, Austrian or festoon blinds might be more suitable. Festoon nets take a lot of fabric. You will need at least 1 ½ times the width and up to three times the height of the window. First, calculate the dimensions, take, for example, a 120cm wide window. It gives four 30cm festoons. To make up, festoons require casings, formed on the wrong side of the net, on which to draw up the fabric.

The points at which to make these casings should be 30, 60, and 90cm across the curtain after the fabric is drawn up to the finished width. Take account of the side hems in your calculations. If you need to join widths, make run and fell seams that coincide with the casings. Start by sewing the vertical casings into the length of the netting. Make two lines of stitching about 1.5 cm apart. Cut lengths of piping cord the length of the window. Thread the piping into the casings with a safety pin. Turn down and sew the top of the net to make the double heading which will be the casing for the wire, sewing across the piping cord as you go.

Pin up the bottom hem and sew it in place, again going across the piping to fix it. Adjust the fabric bunched up by the piping –you may find this easier if you lay the curtain out on the floor. At intervals of 10 or 12 cm down each vertical casing, pin the folds to the piping – the pinning the top casing, and try the curtain up against the window to see if the festoons are hanging neatly tain down and sew through each pinning point to anchor the festoons in place. Sew any fringes or tassels to the hem or the bottoms of the vertical casings, and the curtain is now ready to hang properly. It is also possible to buy a narrow lightweight nylon gathering tape, which you can simply sew on to the back of the curtain at the required intervals, then pull up the net to give the festoons.

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Traditional upholstery was stuffed with a variety of things, most of which tended to settle under pressure and become uneven. Modern upholstery uses plastic or rubber foam and any replacement or repair is better done with this. There are molded rubber pads shaped to suit standard parts, but plastic foam is bought in large pieces which can be cut with a wet carving knife. Thickness varies from a few millimeters to 150 mm or more. A dining chair with a lift out seat may have a plywood base or be a frame with webbing strained across. Webbing is either formed in parallel strips one way only, or is interwoven at right angles. Tacks which hold the covering material can be lifted off with a screwdriver.

Strip off the materials as well as any inner lining, then the padding. If the chair has a frame and the webbing is sagging, remove this but note how it is tacked. Buy new webbing and tack one end of each piece to the frame. At the other end use a strip of wood about 100mmm long as a lever to tension the webbing while putting in the first tracks there, then cut off and fold over the end of more tacks. If you are using a new piece of plastic foam as stuffing cut it slightly oversize so that it is compressed by the covering. Bevel the underside all round so that the cover is stretched, making the edge of the foam curve downwards. Try with a scrap piece of cloth to get this right.

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If a button comes away from the surface of upholstery, you should replace the piece of thread or twine which runs through to the back. The buttoning keeps the filing in place, as well as looking attractive. Put the button on a length of twine and pass this through the eye of a needle long enough to go through the upholstery. At the front, push it through at the point where it was sewn previously, but it will probably be stronger if you bring the needle through at slightly different place at the back. Thread on a flat button at the back and tie the twine under it with a slip knot. Adjust the tension with the slip know until the front appearance is correct, then lock the knot and push it into the thickness of the cushion.

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If the covers are removable and the fabric is suitable, you can have the covers dry cleaned by professionals, or you can do it yourself in a coin operated dry cleaning machine. Some fabrics must be cleaned by reliable cleaning services, especially pile fabrics such as plush or velvet. These firms will also be able to advise you if you are unsure about the proper cleaning procedure for a particular piece of upholstered furniture.

Leather: this can be cleaned after dusting, by using saddle soap, following the maker’s instructions, or with thick suds made from mild, pure soap and as little water as possible. Wipe the suds off with a damp cloth and polish with a soft, dry cloth. You should keep leather supple by using a good quality furniture cream or hide food on it once or twice a year.

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In order to avoid a ring, first treat an area around the stain, and then work in towards the center. When a stained part of a fabric has to be dipped or soaked in a solution, hold the cloth by this area and then twist the unstained parts to prevent the solution spreading when the stained area is immersed. If the stain is to be treated with solvent first and washed afterwards, the best results will be obtained by washing immediately. Many solvents are highly inflammable. Never use near a naked flame. Always work in a well ventilated room, and do not smoke. Do not use methylated spirits on acetates or triacetates. While spirit may be used.

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The simplest of these are roller blinds. They are neat and inexpensive. There are simple kits available for you to make them yourself with your own choice of material, which should be something, quite tough and tightly woven; you can also buy sprays for stiffening roller blind material. Roman blinds are similar but pull up into concertina pleats. You can make this yourself, too, although they’re not quite as straightforward as rollers. Pinoleum blinds are made of fine strips of wood woven together with cotton; there is now a white plastic quill version, too. Balastore and pleastex blinds are both made of tough paper, treated like a roman blind. Venetian blinds with slats of metal or plastic that you can angle at will to control the light entering or pull right up are pricey, but consider them as an investment. They are a good answer to sloping windows and are excellent for insulation.

Day –time Privacy

Translucent curtains are a well established method of giving day-time privacy. If they’re at all heavy, you’ll have to use a second track or a pole but it will be worth the effort to have something rather good. Net curtains can look very wishy-washy. You could be more unconventional and use them as a fixed panel or roller blind. Alternatively you could fit frosted glass or buy glass paint and stencil on a design. If you’re not short of light, mirror glass could replace the ordinary sort. A well-tended window box, or shelves of plants across the whole window box, or shelves of plants across the whole window on the inside are exciting ways to deal with the everyday problem of privacy.

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If upholstery cloth has been torn, the easiest repair for a section that is not under strain is to sew a patch to the inside of the upholstery. Cut a piece of cloth that will overlap about 25mm all round. Pass it through the tear and position it with the end of table knife. Use the knife or a tapered piece of wood to push through latex adhesive. Spread it around and press the edges tightly, so that it penetrates woven fabric. If the material is plastic limitation leather, use an adhesive intended for PVC.

Fray the edges of a cloth patch before sticking it down, and round the corners of a limitation leather patch. If the plastic patch is thick, thin the edges by sanding underneath. If the tear or cut tends to pull open there will have to be some stitches as well as a patch. Use stout thread and zig-zag stitches if the pattern will not show them up too much. Do this over a patch if possible, but in some places it may be easier to stick the patch on to the outside of the upholstery, although it will then be more obvious. It may be possible to cut a piece for a patch from a turned in edge of the old fabric or the bottom of the back.

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A stain is a discoloration of a fabric caused by the presence of foreign matter. Always test the removal method on a hidden part first, to make sure that it doesn’t harm the fabric. In all stain removal, prompt attention is most important. Rinse non-greasy stains away with water. Sprinkle talc on grease marks to absorb them. Dab salt on wine or beetroot stains. Soak in cold water as soon as possible. White wine will remove red wine stains. Many stains can be removed by soaking and then washing, as long as the fabric is washable. Professional cleaning is better when expensive garments or furnishings are stained, particularly if the mark cannot be identified or if there is a special finish to the fabric. In this case, avoid home treatment, mark the stain and, if possible, tell the cleaners exactly what was spilt.

The four categories of stains are
. Those removed by normal washing action.
. Those removed by oxygen beach.
. Those for which soaking before washing helps.
. Those requiring special treatments.

The methods recommended are those most likely to be effective and can be carried out under ordinary domestic conditions. However, there can be no hard-and fast rules for stain removal. The age and concentration of the stain and the weave and finish of the fabric affect the chances of success. If chemical treatment is carried out on a fabric weakened by age or exposure of any kind it may be further weakened. Extra care must be taken when using chemicals marked poisonous or highly inflammable.

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