Today I finished a project that’s been left partially done for . . . oh dear . . . several months now. (I totally lost track of how long it’d been.)
It all started last year when I bought 12 yards of gorgeous fabric from eBay. Its a heavyweight woven (linen/cotton) dark cream with a dark red/purple/dark green large floral pattern and its *perfect* for our Dining Room, which has dark sage green walls, blond hardwood flooring, and gets a LOT of southern light from a wall of windows and sliding glass door onto our patio.
I planned to make 4 panels — 2 for each of the windows, and cut the fabric to the appropriate length. Then I pinned the top and bottom and hung two of them to make sure they were right. At that point I discovered that the fabric was wide enough that a single panel was really enough. (And two would have made the windows look stuffed.) So we left them hung up for awhile to make sure single panels would look right.
Like I said, I lost track of the time. One thing we realized is that we definitely wanted to line the panels. The print was only on one side and they would look a lot better finished. So one of my delays was that I had to look for a good tutorial on how to line curtains. (Have I mentioned that I am entirely self-taught? It’s why I don’t make clothes.)
Here’s an illustration of the difference between a lined curtain (on the right) and an unlined one. (It’s also a good picture of the fabric — nice, isn’t it?)
With mom coming to visit, I finished the curtains today. Want to see some pictures?
1st step: Iron all the fabric.
2nd step: pin the lining to the right side of the curtain fabric on three sides.
3rd step: SEW! (and sew, and sew . . .)
4th step: Turn the fabric right side out. Finish the unsewed (top) edge. Measure 6″ from the top edge. Fold over and pin to sew. (Obviously this is for a rod pocket panel.)
5th step: Before you sew, hang the curtain up and make sure its the right length and that you aren’t sagging or something. Adjust if necessary.
6th step: Sew the top pocket.
7th step: Hang and admire!
Congratulations! I’m still wrestling with the basics of using my sewing machine, but my desire for yoga pants will overcome it, to be sure!
One thing I was taught when my mother was attempting to teach me to sew: “size” your fabric first. That means run it through the washer and dryer before you iron it, just in case there’s a tendency to shrink, and to get out any extra factory chemicals that might linger on the fabric. With curtains it’s not such a big deal – most are best steam cleaned anyway.
I always forget to wash my curtains — but that’s partly because I buy expensive (and usually heavy) fabrics in silks and linens (cless the eBay sellers!). I don’t want to ruin them before I’ve used them. So I end up carefully dusting them (give ’em a good shake) instead of washing.