Curtains, Really? Now that's Love...

For those of you who don't know, I work at an interior design firm as a seamstress.  We do lots of things there, curtains, cushions, pillow and my favorite slip covers.  Now of all of those things that we make curtains are my least favorite.  To me they just lack the complexity I love in slip covers.

That all said while making over our guest room to be an office for the love of my life, what did she say the office would need? Why new curtains of course, custom by yours truly.  ERGH! My response, " Of course, I love you, I will gladly do the thing I loathe doing all week long on my weekend off."  Ok, so the last half of that was in my head, but the first half was the important part.  I do love her and of course I was going to do it regardless.

Naturally it was a great topic for a blog post.  These are just simple rod pocket curtains.  We got the fabric at Ikea.  I bought 5 yards and I used every inch of it.  The curtains I made went from a rod above the window to the floor and it measured 86".  When making a set of drapes I like a panel for each side, it makes the curtains full and pretty.

Here explicitly is what you need in terms of fabric lengths and measurements.  

Your total length rod to floor: 86" for me

Hem depth: 4"(this is actually going to mean 8" extra on your fabric, but we'll get into that shortly)

Rod pocket depth: 2" (Like above this is and extra 4" to the finished length.)

Total fabric length: 98"

Width: My windows are relatively standard so I used one width of fabric for each panel, for larger windows you'll need to increase that.

The first step is to remove your selvage edges.  On cotton fabrics, especially the home dec weight you can take a shortcut.  A lot of people would tell you not to do what I am advising, but a lot of people are up tight about their sewing.

You cut a small length along the selvage where the white meets up with the pattern.  Hold the selvage in your right hand, the pattern in your left, and let it rip literally.  Pull them apart and tear the selvage right off your fabric.  It makes a noise that is fantastically satisfying when intended and absolutely horrifying when it is unintentional.

Now that your fabric is all tore up it is time to put in your hem.  This project is going to have a series of rolled hems.  Normally when I do curtain hems I like a 4" wide hem, that means 8" total will be devoted just to the hem. My fabric was just a wee bit too short so I have to shorten my hems.  I only had 92" for my curtains total. My bottom hem was only an inch to allow for two inches for my rod pocket.

Using your chalk or marking pen I like Clover Tailor's Chalk, draw a line four inches up from the bottom of your fabric.  ***Be careful, if your fabric is directional, make sure that you put the hem on the right end on both panels.  I made that mistake on these very curtains and had to fix it.  I forgive me, the pattern was confusing and I was sick.

First press the edge of your fabric to the line.

Next roll the end of your fabric under so that your raw edge sits inside the crease you just ironed in.  Press the newly folded edge.  If you have access to a blind hem machine this would be a phenomenal time to use it, but more people don't and I only have one at work. Since the hem is one inch, I pinned on the face of my fabric and topstitch 7/8 ths of an inch from the edge, on the face of the fabric.  You could stitch this by hand but it would take a while and I did not have the patience to do so.

You are going to mark and roll the side hems next just like you did with the bottom hem, also at 2".  The difference is that at the corner is going to be turned in and pressed like I have shown here:

I followed this turned corner by finishing the turn of the side hems. Last mission on our delightful side hems is to pin on the right side of the fabric and to topstitch 7/8 ths of an inch from the edge.

One turn                                                              Two Turns

                                                             Final Press                                          Pinned and ready to Topstitch

As is usually the case I couldn't get by without a little help from my friends.  Orson the wonder-pup was inspecting the hems, making sure they were even.

One of our other puppies (we have four) Hobbes was lending his wizened eyes to the project today.

My pep talk.

What would this blog be if I neglected to chime in on what Deb was doing to aid the progression of this current project.  She mostly just cuddled some puppies and through me some curtain making pistols, while making some of her famous faces.  My wife ladies and gentlemen:

***I always craft under attentive and proper supervision***

We are nearly there, all we have left to do is complete our rod pocket.  Now if you remember from the top of the blog, our rod pocket is a finished 2" rather than 1".  Once more we are going to roll the fabric just like are other three hems.  We are also going to topstitch this hem but instead of stitching at 7/8 ths of an inch, you will stitch it 1 and 7/8 ths of an inch.

Once you've topstitched this last hem you'll have created this delightful pocket threw which you will put the curtain rod. Hence the name "Rod Pocket".  Genius I know!

Then...Voila, beautiful curtains!

~ Caroline~

Projected Forecast (ok like nothing has gotten done, didn't I already say I was sick?)

1) Grammy's Skirt

2) Tablet Case for Deb

3) Blouse pattern for me? or new bag, ooh conundrum!