Date:         Wed, 27 Aug 1997 23:17:34 -0400
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Matthew Bulley <GMBulley@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Re: curtains for vanagon

In a message dated 97-08-27 10:54:18 EDT, jadams@SKIMMER.FSL.NOAA.GOV writes:

<< Can someone suggest where I would find a good set of curtains for my
 90 Vanagon ?  Are they sold by mail order ?  I didn't see any on offer by
Bus
 Depot on their website, so hopefully there are other suupliers.

         Any suggestions or comments are welcome.  >>

Some things for our noble road machines are difficult to manufacture at home
with much precision. For instance, the Tomato sauce cans I used for pistons
never made it around the block, and the Westy top seal I made from a garden
hose frequently comes loose, flogging other DC beltway drivers.

Curtains, on the other hand, I would certainly reccomend you explore
manufacturing by a local seamstress (perhaps yourself or spouse?).

The seams are all rolled-straigh hemming (the easiest to sew). You have a
myriad of fade resistant cloth at your local upholstery fabric store, you can
make them as opaque or translucent as you wish and you're assured of
displaying the pattern and weave of your choice when you pick it out
yourself.

The old curtains come down in a flash, and serve handily as a pattern (that's
a "template" for you engineer-types). Installation is the reverse of removal.
Suzy's bus will have a double layer curtain, with a satin-finished light
seafoam green cotton toward the dark-tinted glass, and a mottled darker
seafoam hopsack material toward the interior of the bus. These have yet to be
made, but we have the material.  : )

We toyed with the idea of some of the juvenile fabrics, Tommy the Tank Engine
and Barney, the Dinosaur from Hell are quite popular and available in many
patterns and colors.

Set your sights on a worthwhile goal, like Big Bird curtains,

gmbulley
fairfax, va