« Marthadex update | Main | Blythe lined dress »
April 02, 2005
kitchen curtain
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Using a half-inch seam allowance, sew straight along the bottom, again starting and ending about an inch from the raw edge.
- Turn the curtain right side out and iron. I topstitched about a half inch from the bottom just for decorative purposes.
- 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.
- Sew the front and back flap together, catching the folded edges. Don't sew the sleeve shut!
- 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. :/
Posted under Sewing/Fabric Crafts at April 2, 2005 03:29 PM
Comments
i was looking around at your sight...how do you stay so organized & current? i am so impressed. this is so professional. thank you for sharing your many talents with the craft community.
Posted by: laura r. at April 2, 2005 10:50 PM