I made a valence for my kitchen window. It’s a panel of white muslin with a crochet trim. I swatched 4 different trims from Cozy Crochet, and this one ultimately won because it worked up fastest. It also looks like 4 feet of little faces smiling at me.

Here’s how I made it. There’s probably a smarter way, but oh well. I mainly did it this way because nothing I do ever ends up straight and I needed flexibility to fix things throughout the construction.

1. The fabric should be a quarter yard long by however wide your window is. Wider if you want it to ruffle. Crochet (or buy) trim the same width as the fabric.
2. Fold the panel in half long-ways, and iron the crease. Starting about an inch in from the short side’s raw edge, and about two inches from the crease, sew a straight line to form the sleeve for the curtain rod. I used a contrasting color of stitching so it wouldn’t look quite so plain.
3. Now fold both of the flaps down along the seam to meet at the bottom. Iron again. Check that the bottom edge is parallel to the top. Mine wasn’t, so I had to cut off a slice to even things up.
4. Using a half-inch seam allowance, sew straight along the bottom, again starting and ending about an inch from the raw edge.
5. Turn the curtain right side out and iron. I topstitched about a half inch from the bottom just for decorative purposes.
6. If the sides aren’t straight (which, again, mine weren’t) cut them so everything squares up. Now fold in the raw edges on the sides and iron down.
7. Sew the front and back flap together, catching the folded edges. Don’t sew the sleeve shut!
8. Hand sew the crochet trim into the very bottom seam using a dull needle. The crochet is stretchy, so watch that you’re using appropriate tension.

Wow, bad lighting today. :/