DIY Curtains and Valances

As I mentioned in my previous post, last week was full of sewing ... just not quilts! Curtains were the theme of the week. It all started with a simple valance for the laundry room.

The cute little blue floral duck cloth was purchased at Hobby Lobby well over a year ago. From start to finish, it took about 30 minutes to make. After I finished it, I realized I had forgotten to add a lining. Oh well, it’s good enough! Sometimes you just have to call it done and move on.

The little valance put me in the mood to keep going. As you all know, my sewing room has been without curtains for a long time ...  about a year, actually. I purchased the fabric for the curtains two or three years ago at Hobby Lobby for $2 a yard. It was a great price, and I fell in love with the sweet little embroidered flowers.

Aww… look at them! Little daisies… my favorite flower.  I knew they would probably cause a little trouble when sewing, but it was a chance I was willing to take. After all, who can resist a fabric covered in little daisies?

 They didn’t cause a problem at all. The needle went right through them with no issues. BUT the fabric, on the other hand, was the biggest pain in my keister!

I tried every size needle in my stash, and not one of them would go through this crazy fabric without pushing the fabric down into the bobbin housing. After a few swear words, a time-out, and a completely useless search of the internet, I started brainstorming the problem.

Then, out of nowhere, I came up with a solution. My thought was that if I pulled the fabric from the back side of the walking foot and from the front, but in opposite directions, while helping it along, it might stop the fabric from being shoved down into the bobbin housing.

By golly gosh, it worked! It was a little awkward to do, but it got the job done. Sometimes you just have to outsmart the sewing machine! 

It took a little longer than expected, pretty much the whole day to make two sets of curtains for the windows and…

.…one set for the door. Yes, I have an exterior door in my sewing room. We think that at one time, this was a small one-car garage.

The next day I thought, why stop now? I was on a window treatment roll, so let’s make a new valance for the bedroom. I wanted something a little more “fancy.” How about a valance with a scalloped lower edge?  Oh, that would be cute!  I had to tape together some packing paper to make a long enough template. There was a little math involved to get the scallops evenly spaced, and I used an old quilting template to draw the wavy line.  Who knew all those quilting tools would come in handy for making curtains? 

This valance will be lined. I watched a few videos on how to add a lining, and they made it seem far more complicated than it needed to be.  I decided to keep it simple ... put the right sides together, sew around the outer edge, and leave an opening for turning. Sometimes the simplest way really is the best way.

Slowly, I made my way around the fabric. Sewing a 5/8" seam made me feel like I really knew what I was doing,  It’s been many years since I’ve used anything other than a quarter-inch or half-inch seam allowance.

That extra 1/8" had me feeling pretty fancy!

After turning it right side out and giving it a good pressing, I sewed around the edge to keep the seam secure through future washings.

A rod pocket was added to the back by making a simple tube of fabric. I drew a straight line on the backing, lined up the edge of the pressed tube with the line, pinned it in place, and sewed it down.

This was much easier than the complicated methods used by those professional curtain designers I found on YouTube. Sometimes I think they just enjoy making things harder than they need to be.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that all of the fabrics in today’s post were prewashed and dried on high heat for maximum shrinkage. No future shrinking surprises for me!

She turned out pretty darn cute if I do say so myself.  Maybe next week while doing my weekly errands I'll stop by Hobby Lobby and check out the trims.  Perhaps a short fringe of little fuzzy balls for the scalloped edge?