Carpets & Curtains (Part Two): It's Curtains Jim But Not As We Know it!

Hello and welcome to the second half of another day in the Hall! I should also welcome you to a room not usually seen on the tours or when you visit Wimpole. This is known as the Bow Room, called as such because it’s a large curved room that looks out on to the south avenue.

As it’s not usually part of the Hall walk through as it were, the Bow Room is unfortunately not in as good of a condition as most of the other rooms. Despite this, the curtains still need looking after and conserving where we can.

With the wiring project affecting ALL rooms in the house it makes it the ideal opportunity to care for the rooms a little better. Hence, here we are in the Bow Room lifting curtains off the floor and protecting them from the inevitable dust that will be created from the works.

I’ve been refraining on using the term ‘bagging curtains’ or ‘bag the curtains’; I don’t know why but I feel it a bit uncertain and open to ribbing! But essentially that’s what we’re doing: Bagging curtains!

Anyway, enough with the japery. On a side note, I was a little disappointed that japery is an actual word! I thought I was inventing a whole new word ready for the next addition of the English Dictionary but no such luck. Hey, read my blog and learn new words!!

Ahem, cough… enough of that. Using a roll of Tyvek (yes that magical material that doesn’t tear! – Incidentally I actually tore it today so that’s Mary’s theory out the water!). Basically we cut a length that runs down one side and up the other with eyelets cut in the edges. Tape (fabric tape not the sticky kind) is then fed through the eyelets allowing us to create a drawstring so we can pull the ‘bag’ together.

What about the two open ends, you may ask? Well, we simply fold and wrap them around to enclose the curtain in the Tyvek and tie off with some more tape. For a Blue Peter example; here’s one we made earlier (right).

This is pretty much the same method we’ve been using for all the curtains that have been tied up. Of course the type of curtain material does affect how we wrap and conserve the curtains. Some material, such as silk, creases really easily so more care has to be taken. Often we’ll create sausages to slip in between the folds to pad out the material so it doesn’t crease.

I’ve also just realised I’ve slipped into ‘textile’ language! Obviously I don’t mean your usual pork and apple; the sausages are ones we make using acid-free tissue paper. I may have mentioned these in a previous post but basically you concertina the paper up into a length or ‘sausage’ for use in packing out textiles.

When we tie up the curtains (see; much better than saying bagging curtains!), the sausages are placed where we intend to fold the curtain up so they pad the fold without too much creasing. And you have no idea how much I had to rephrase this sentence so it had a lot less innuendo in it!

Incidentally I apologise for the quality of the photos; they serve a purpose but they aren’t great. The lighting was pretty poor and the camera struggled a bit to focus up. You get the picture anyway, haha! Boom Boom!! I can see Shane groaning already…

Here's one we tied earlier...

The bagged curtains are suspended from the rails above using a simple length of tape. Speaking of simple anyone recognise what movie this is from: “Easy, just use a simple strand of creeper!” Anyhoo, after that intermission; we thread the tape through the eyelets of the bag several times for added strength and loop the top end around, through or over any support we can find up above.

Easier said than done I can tell you as nine times out of ten there is a distinct lacking of upper rail support! That’s when tieback hooks and conveniently placed picture hooks come in handy. Finally we simply tie tape around the trussed up curtains to secure the bag. This is done loosely so we don’t put extra creases in the curtain material.

So there you have it, not a bad job done! Mary’s always more than happy with the job we do, especially as she can put us in a room and say do this or do that and Maggie and I crack on with it. Ya have to blow your own trumpet sometimes!

Until next time…

Carpets and Curtains (Part One)

“Do you know what you want? You don't know for sure…” This about what sums up what’s going through my head at the moment, thinking how to introduce the next post! The quote is of course lyrics from one of my favourite songs ‘God Gave Us Rock n’ Roll II’ by Kiss that I happen to be listening to as I begin this post.

Ok so my taste in music is probably not for everyone and even my old roommate Al, way back during my days at uni, couldn’t stand the band but over the years I’ve come to appreciate some of their most excellent songs. FYI in case you didn’t realise it’s also the end song to one of my favourite movies!! Not telling what it is but there are clues within these first two paragraphs for you puzzlers out there.

Anyway, on to the topic (bar) of interest. Just out of interest who remembers the topic bar? Can you still get them in shops still? Or did I just make that up…By the way I’m genuinely curious, I wasn’t setting up a conundrum for all you folks! For all you Simon Pegg fans out there (Paul!), did you know he advertised Topic bars back in 2002?

And since the next track is ‘Action’, I better stop digressing and like they say in Monty Python: “Get on with it!” Right after Masterchef…

Well, I’m back! Man, I seem to be stretching this post out a bit although it was worth the break. After a very long intro, this is another house post from a week or so back. Yes, I have a backlog of blog posts now!

It was another carpet rolling Monday morning and Maggie and I were in Mrs. Bambridge’s bedroom prepping to roll a fragile rug. Eager to work we had shot off ahead, thinking that Mary would be with us momentarily. Fortunately we were quite familiar by now in the rolling of carpets and rugs so soon we got stuck in to organising ourselves and our equipment.

First job was to shift the furniture around so we could get access to the rug. Fortunately Val was nearby to give us a little direction and a hand with some of the more fragile items.

Once clear and properly rotated we could get to work covering in acid-free tissue paper and rolling on to the tube. Naturally this is easier said than done as several times during rolling we had to backtrack and shift the rug or tube slightly so it’d roll on a bit more square. Hard stuff when the rug itself wasn’t made straight!

The other thing you have to remember is that as you roll you have to smooth the tissue paper in front to remove as many little creases and bumps as possible. Reason for this is that any crease or fold can affect the material of the rug or carpet when it’s rolled up on a tube, which can lead to degradation.

Being a thinner rug than the carpets we had rolled previously, made it easier to ruck up as we were rolling. Quite a few times we had to stop and even out the rug underneath before we could continue.

Eventually though we had it tightly rolled up on to the tube ready for the next stage: Tyvek.

As with previous, the whole bundle is wrapped again in Tyvek, that magical material that protects but doesn’t tear. It’s quite nifty stuff, much better than the cursed tissue paper that refuses to cut and tears at the slightest pull!

Val was still on hand to give us a hand (as seen in the photo opposite) and lift the package away from the public. Where was I you may ask? I was doing the important job of documenting the entire procedure for prosperity!

Only kidding, I was actually manoeuvring the odd bit of furniture to make it easier for the two girls to get the rug out of the way. I’m often diving around trying to take the odd snap while hard at work at the same time.

Final job was putting everything back where it came from! Feeling a little guilty for stopping Val from doing her usual jobs we tackled putting most things back ourselves, although now I think about it I think Val was there anyway!

I also have a greater appreciation for those little barriers that are put up to stop the punters wandering all over the place. I had no idea how tricky they are to get right (that’s the barriers by the way not the public!); you put one up and as you’re adjusting it the one before falls over! It took longer than necessary to finally get the room properly barriered off, phew!

Now where are those curtains…