Part 12 Working On A Dream: The O Scale Bond's Funeral Home Diorama Project
Working On A Dream: The O Scale Bond's Funeral Home Diorama Project
Part Twelve: Making Formal Window Treatments For The Windows
We are on a roll now. I have so many installments to get caught up on because of my stay in the hospital that they are going to be coming at you more and more. This is another important part that gives the overall building a real effect to it. And is really easy to do for all your buildings on your layout.
Window treatments are a small but important detail to your buildings. And we all used items like masking tape for roll-up shades, filament tape for blinds, for frosted glass the use of 3M Medipore medical tape. Also printing out window treatments found on the internet or ones supplied with some kits are used too. But in the case of Bonds we needed something a bit more elegant for the windows
So one day last spring when Maria and I did our rounds visiting hobby shops, craft stores and artist supply houses she came up with an idea. She said she didn?t need anything from the stores that she had it at home from her craft show days. Upon coming home she went in the attic and came down with assorted types of lace textile borders.
I have to say, this was a great idea. They can give the effect of real drapes and curtains hanging in the interior and from the outside give the real homey look. There are so many styles of the lace that you can obtain. The colors for the most part of that of white or an off-white like alabaster but you can get some in other colors also. Widths can range from 3/8" up too 5" ? 6" wide and larger I seen.
Where to get this lace is obvious . Any craft store or fabric shop carries many styles of the lace. But here is trick to getting some older styles. Next time guys you and the little woman go to local garage sales and flea markets. Take a look on the tables or boxes with the sewing stuff in it. You be surprised how many times you will find this lace for sale at a fraction of the cost ! And don't worry, we won't tell anyone you where looking there 
So here are the basics for using this method for Bonds and for anyone wanting to use this in their own buildings. In the photo below are the basics you need for achieving this look (Figure 1). We are going for a look where there are shades in the window with drapes. So we included masking tape for the project along with a good sticky scotchtape.
Next cut a piece of the lace to the size you need (Figure 2). Remember when buying the lace to have the sizes of the windows you are dressing handy. It makes it easier for applying and some patterns of the lace, though nice, just can't work. Then can seem uneven when installed.
Next we took a piece of scotch tape and placed the lace on it (figure 3). We are going for the effect where the shade is down and the drapes show through the space between the sill and the bottom of the shade (Figure 4). We installed this them to the bottom sash. The bottom of the lace is closes to the sill.
Last but not least we take a piece of masking tape (We went the alabaster route, if you like a white look to it, paper medical tape makes great shades for this.) and applied it to the rest of the window area. (Figure 5) We stayed close to the top of the lace when applying the tape. One either side of the masking tape inside the building, I put 2 small strips of the metal duct tape. Because it is super sticky, it will hold the masking tape in place tightly. After that, you have a great looking window treatment as seen in figure 5.
One great thing on using this lace in O Scale projects (The smaller widths work great with the smaller scales too) is that if you are making a building with an interior, the product works for that too ! I made a real quick crude one below in the photo (Figure 6). By taking a thin dowel or even a bamboo BBQ skewer for the drape rod. Cut 2 even pieces of the length you need, pleating the lace and gluing to the rod, adding a nice looking bead to the rod ends for rod finials. You have great looking finish drapery ! Use thin regular or hemp cord to make tie-backs if need !
We hope you liked this installment of the Bond's project. This one I know a lot of you can use on different projects you have going on with your layouts and buildings you are creating.
I am on a roll reediting the pieces I wrote while laid up. Tonight or tomorrow luck installment 13 will be on here ! There is the back of Bonds with building the back, painting the dressed stone block and cinder blocks styrene sheets then applying them. It is really coming full circle now.
So we hope you enjoy watching this come together. We are having fun doing it ! Hope you enjoy Mark
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