My Grandmother's Barkcloth draperies

 

My grandparents had THE BEST drapery fabric in their SE Minneapolis house. Their windows were pretty much floor to ceiling with 10 foot ceilings. I've loved the draperies since I was a kid and when they had both died and mom and I had to sell the house in 1989, I took the draperies. The fabric is a bark cloth and had some damage over the years. I took off the lining, did some testing and washing and some parts of the fabric didn't hold up anymore. Other parts were fine. Into a box it went. Now, 30 more years later, I had the idea to use it for a book cover. I did more washing and ironing and then cut to appropriate size so I could back the fabric with paper to use on a bound book. Here's how it turned out. I have so much of the fabric that I could make many many books. I'm also happy there is some black because I have some black book cloth that I hate (I generally don't like the dark hole of black) that I can  use on the spines of the book.