I've made these curtains more times than I care to remember. As the proud owner of a huge inherited fabric stash it's one of the few ways I can completely change a room just because I feel like it.
These one's are for boyfriend's house, hence the rather masculine brown shade. Not my taste at all but it will look very smart with his deep brown carpet and cream walls.
On to the destructions!
Measuring FabricI'm not a fan of messing about with maths.
Measure the window and make sure the you have enough fabric for the height of the window plus plenty for going just below and above for the curtain pole, plus loads of seam allowance. I'd say 50cm minimum.
For the width there's all sorts of equations recommended, nah just make sure the width of the fabric is enough to completely cover the window. Times two curtains / two widths this will give plenty of fullness and less cutting to be bothering with.
The lining fabric needs to be abut 20cm narrower and about 5cm shorter than the main fabric.
Press and Pin HemTake the bottom edge of each piece of fabric and fold it up about a half inch. Your actual measurement doesn't really matter as long as it's roughly the same for all pieces of fabric. Press the crease firmly. Fold it up again this time slightly more, say an inch and press again.
Pin the crease in place. Make sure that the pins are pointing downwards towards the edge of the fabric with the heads protruding above the fold. Otherwise they'll be difficult to pull out later and you'll get owies or worse your sewing machine will get an owie!
Blind HemWow, what a fantastic stitch! I used to use a normal seam which looks terrible up close. So I resigned myself to hand sewing hems - boring! So I now have a pair of curtains with a pinned hem hanging in my living room! Grrr, too many more interesting things to do with my life.
But this stitch is the solution. And so easy peasy!
Load your machine with a thread that matches your curtains as close as you can get.
For starters you'll need a foot with a guide built in. Well, in truth you don't NEED but for impatient sewers like me it is a must as it saves a lot of careful, slow sewing to keep the stitches in exactly the right place.
Set your machine to the blind hem stitch.
Place your fabric on your sewing machine so that the folded hem is towards the foot.
Fold the hem back on it'self leaving about a quarter of an inch exposed. Like so:
Line to guide up with the edge of the wrong side of the curtain fabric and stitch.
The stitch makes zig zag stitches along the seam which will be covered on the wrong side of the curtain. Every few stitches it will "jump" out and create a tiny stitch just catching the front of the curtain fabric. As long as you keep the presser foot lined up those tiny stitches will barely show on the right side of your curtain.
How cool is that!?!
Sewing SeamsPlace the curtain and lining right sides together and sew the side seams. Your seam allowance doesn't really matter as long as it's the same on all sides and on both curtains.
Both seams must be worked from the top of the curtain down towards the bottom, not the other way round.
Find the middle of the curtain fabric and the lining fabric. Bring them together and pin. Lay the top of your curtain on a flat surface and smooth it out. Your should have some of the curtain fabric showing on the wrong side, more to the point it should be roughly the same width on each side. Pin the top to hold it in place.
Sew along the top seam.
Turn your curtains the right side out and give them a good press on all sides.
Top StitchThis step makes your curtains look really crisp and professional. It also holds your pressed seams in place when your curtains are washed.
Go back to you guide foot and set your machine to stitch just tot he left of the needle's usual position.
Line the guide up with the edge of the curtain and sew.
A little line of stitches just in form the edge. Even in this photo you can see how much crisper the edge of the curtain is.
Curtain TapeAnd now for the final step. Cut a length of curtain tape just a tad longer than the curtain is wide. Fold one end under itself and pin it to the back of the curtain.
Pin the tape along the top of the curtain until you get tit the other end. Fold it under itself again and pin. Stitch around all four edges of the tape stitching right through both layers of fabric. At each end reverse over the stitches about three times to make sure it's super secure.
And you're done!
