Country Style Curtains

 It has come the time to re-decorate the closet I decorated with horses back on 2013. I just made the curtains of lace and used white laundry baskets inside to arrange my fabrics etc. in. It turn out calm (as wished) and pretty too. I am happy with the result. I just keep on loving this piece of furniture he made at his teens over 30 years ago. (At some point we have replaced the door handles by new.)

Re-hemming your valance -tutorial

 

As I told you before I have been going through a lot of stuff with my mom lately. Many things have been threw away. But I found perfect... well, almost perfect valance for my kitchen for the next winter season. The edge looked awful and untidy. I do like fringes but time had really made its job to these.

I took my scissors and cut off the fringe edge, used my serger to neaten it up and moved forward with my plan to save these valances which were made of proper old thick cotton.

I fold the edge to the backside.

Then I started to work with small problem. I wanted to fix it in the way that it can not be seen to the front side.

That's why I tack it in this way and was ready work again with the hem.

I used zigzag to fasten the factory made lace to decorate the valance. I usually fasten the lace in this way. The hem doesn't get too thick when lace is not on the fabric. Besides if the lace is very thin and light thick hem makes it look a bit lumpy.

I was so satisfied with the result. I paid 20€ of the lace. With that money it might have been able to buy cheap new valances for my kitchen windows. But on the other had not as proper thick fabric as this was. And; recycling is good way to save nature resources. Instead of whole new curtains I need just 5 meters of lace.

Sewing curtains -tutorial

If you ever think about learn to sew the curtains are good thing to start. And it is easy way to save a lot of money.

First of all you need the window, fabric and sewing yarn. And hands or machine for doing it all.

Before going shopping measure the window and plan how wide and long you desire the curtains to be. The fabric width is usually 90 - 140 cm.

My plan was that the width can be anything; depens on the fabric and how it inspires me. The length of the ready curtains was planned to be not less than 150 cm but some extra was allowed. At the shop I found this blue lace fabric.

You need to count the folds. If the fabric is not something extremely heavy like thick velvet you won't need more than 15 - 20 cm extra for each curtains folds. BUT if you use cotton or linen ASK how much it will shrink (4- 20% per meter) and add that measurement for each curains lenght.

You can ask the saleswoman match the length with the print. Ask them to cut the fabric for you at the shop without extra charge. Even I -who can cut fabrics asleep- let them cut the curtains at the shop because it is easier in that way. So, also this time I came home with pre-cut pieces of fabric.

If you are unsure about which is the right side of the fabric; ask them to mark it at the shop.

How much you need for the curtain rod fold? Measure its circumference, half the result and add some extra. You need 2cm for the seam plus this space for the passageway. 1cm is enough to get the rod through; but if the fabric is thick 1cm may feel too tight at the end. If the fabric is slippery very wide passageway doesn't keep the curtains so wide open easily; they want to slip and get half closed. You need extra also for the hem. 3-5 cm is enough for each curtains hem fold.

In this case the circumference is 9 which means 4½cm for the fold, plus 2cm for the seam and 1cm for the passageway; which makes 7½cm at least. I would say around 10 would still be fine. And 5cm more for the hem. I wanted at least 150cm height curtains so it makes 150+10+5=165cm. Because it needed to match with the print the result at the fabric shop was 175cm.

My fabric has this kind of edges. I don't need to sew them. They are cut and burnt into the shape. But this edge determines the places of the folds.  

If you need to sew the side edges, do it always at first. In the same way like pictured below. 1-2 cm should be enough for each fold. The point is to hide the selvedges.

Hang the fabrics somewhere clean and not dusty place to wait their turn for processing. I always sew they all at the same time; not one by one. So at the end I finish them all together.

Place the pins like this. The sharp part should point to there from where the sewing happens. In this way it is easier to take the pins away. Don't sew over the pins; it can break the pins and sewing machine needle. And when they snap the sharp parts can fly anywhere.

Always fold the fabric to the back side. I had to fold the passageway for the rod in this way to match the shape of the edge. Especially if the fabric is slippery or feels difficult to stay on hand made folds; pin the fold at first like this. Measure all the time that the lenght stays the same.

Then pin the fold seam like this. Again; measure all the time. Sew this fold before pinning the hem.

This is the hem fold. It is smaller. Again the edge determines the height.

Do this in the same way than before. After finishing this, your curtain is ready!

My curtain needed just two seams. One for the rod and the other for the hem. Easy, simple and fast. One curtain cost me 8,75€ because I didn't need to buy the sewing yarn.

Blue and white lace

To run away from the spring cleaning I really needed to go to the fabric shop to buy material for the living room curtains. I didn't find the right fabric at my last weekend fabric shopping. Now I went to another shop and there it was in a sale basket. Well done! Just 5€ per meter. I have never before seen any other colour lace fabric curtains than different shades of white. Perhaps somewhere else -not so backward- it is common to use all the shades in lace fabric but no, not in the windows located deep north. But soon there will be some in my windows.

I bought also some white velcro and lace. No, I am not going to use them for the curtains. :) But they are very useful to have at home. You never know when you need them.

Tomorrow I will sew the curtains and later on will teach you how to make simple styled curtains by yourself. Just to save money. My aunt used to moan she can sew only straight seams. I said there are no any others; they all supposed to go straight. :)

Because the evening turned like this I had to go back to my spring cleaning project and forget the burning need to sort out more raw wool. Yes, there is still snow. Today we got more snow and even hails. But today I also saw the first rainbow for this year so I know; summer is comming and soon the whole sun will be all mine -day and night. :)