Of course I said yes! I needed the practice. She sent me all the dimensions of the window including this picture and drawing below.
The first thing I had to figure out was how these curtains were going to hang. One noticeable problem was how the two windows were so close to each other to make that corner. If she hung two panels in that corner, it would probably end up covering half (if not more) of each window. Since I think curtains that are hung high and wide look better, I knew this wasn't going to be an option. We could go high for sure, but wide we couldn't. Also, I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture, but these windows already go up pretty high. At least higher and closer to the ceiling than mine do, so that was a good thing for sure. After thinking long and hard, I ultimately decided to only make two panels. One for each window. She could hang the panels (wide) on the outside of both windows so that no part of the window would be covered while they are open, but I would make the panels wide enough so that if she ever wanted to close them, they would be wide enough to cover the whole window. It looks good in my head, so I'm crossing my fingers that it looks good in person. I also didn't tell Katie this idea, so I'm crossing my fingers that it not only looks good, but that she likes it too. So, I know you read this Katie, here was the thought process and I hope they work out for you. I didn't want to block out any of that sunlight coming in when you wanted to have them open.
Next up was trying to decide on a fabric. I originally told Katie that she was going to have to come with me to pick it out, but she said she wanted that to be part of the surprise and she wanted me to pick it out. All she told me was the color scheme that she had going on in the kitchen and that was it. I was excited too because she said that I could even go for a fun fabric and didn't have to go to plain.
So off I went to the fabric store. First things first. I was hoping to find a fabric that was wide enough to cover her whole window so that I could just cut it and and hem the sides once and not have to do much measuring for the wideness. For those of you who might not know, all fabrics come in different widths and then the length will be determined by the yard like normal.
So I found a few fabrics and carried them around with me, but then I saw the one. I loved it and hoped that she would too, grabbed 6 yards or so and left. See in this picture below that I used for one of my pictures of the day? This is what I got at the fabric store, and that paisley looking teal fabric is for the curtains!
Then it was time for the good part. All I will say is that there was blood, sweat, and tears put into these curtains and that is NOT an aggregation.
Blood: I pricked my finger so bad while trying to pin the hem that it drew blood
Sweat: I got so frustrated with the bobbin at one point that I was actually sweating and having to take off layers of clothing while trying to fix the situation
Tears: I finally called Mr. Hunt over to help me, out of desperation since he doesn't know anything about a sewing machine, and when he couldn't figure it out either, I finally just let out a good cry.
But don't worry, I took a deep breath and somehow fixed it and everything finished up great. It felt good to let that frustration out anyway.
So here is a little tutorial on how easy it really is to make curtains. As long as you don't get stuck with a faulty bobbin problem, everything else is very easy.
OK so first thing I did was iron the WHOLE thing. This way I wasn't making any cuts with wrinkly fabric only to find out the cuts weren't strait once the wrinkles were gone.
Then I cut the fabric in half. Usually I would measure the exact measurement I needed here, but I did that before going to the fabric store and got pretty much the exact length I needed for both panels (with the allowance for the hem), so I knew that I could just cut it in half and just hem. Also, as long as you don't make the curtain too short, there really isn't anything that would be too long. High curtains are pretty.
Then I got the iron hot again for the hem. I decided to hem a half an inch once and then fold that over another half an inch for a very smooth (not raw) edge. This is what took the most time. I pinned it all first, then ran the iron over that. Once the iron was ran over it, I was able to take the pins out then or even as I put it through the machine. The fold held easily after I ironed them.
Then I ran it through the machine. That means that for two panels, four sides each, and two folds each, I just repeated the pin-iron-sew thing 16 times. Whew! Somewhere in the middle of this was where the bobbin decided to be a diva!
Lastly I made a pocket for the rod to slide through. With this Katie is able to decide whether she wants to put the rod through the rod pocket, or buy ring clips from Target or Ikea (or anywhere else that sells them), and hang them on those. I wanted to be able to give her options.
So to make the rod pocket, I looked at another pair of curtains that I bought from a store and measured their rod pocket. It was about 4 inches. It is important to get a good measurement because what is the use of a rod pockets if no rod fits in it? To make it, I just folded one side over just once, just like I did for the hem, but 4 inches this time and not a half an inch. I also just folded over once since that side already had a nice smooth hem. I did that whole pin-iron-sew thing again and we were done.
I will say one thing that I did wrong. Once I measured twice and cut once the original time when I cut the fabric in half, I did great on the measurements and got it exactly right. For some reason, I got all paranoid once I started the second panel and measured again. When I did some quick math in my head about the hems, I thought that the second one that I was about to start was going to end up longer than the one I just did. I really didn't want to do all the work and then have to go back and redo one side. I did that math about two or three times and then decided that I needed to cut some of the second panel length off. BIG MISTAKE! When I was finished, the second panel was shorter than the first! I'm not sure what happened there or where I went wrong, but I should have just stuck with my first cut and not second guess what I did. But, luckily it isn't that much of a difference, I hope! Just want to give you a heads up!
Ladies (and gentlemen) that's it! That is all I did to make some pretty curtains. Easy right?
I will mention that since the fabric I chose was pretty thick and you couldn't really see through it, I opted out of making ones with a liner in it. Also, just because a fabric is light and see through, doesn't mean you have to make a liner either. Its all a preference, some people like to have airy see through curtains, others like to have thick-block-the-light curtains. To do this, you would just get a twin sheet and use that. Sew it in with the hem and you are all set. Make sure you iron it though and possibly pre wash it (if you think you might wash your curtains in the future). This way it can be pre shrunk and won't shrink and look funny after you have already sewed it.
OK, enough chatter, you have probably already skipped half this post. Right before I folded these babies up and wrapped them for my sweet sister, I hung them up in my dining room so that I could make sure everything was looking good. So this picture is at my house. This picture is with my phone so its blurry. Hopefully we will get some pictures from Katie once they are up! hint hint!
So, that's how you make curtains! It honestly took me about 4 hours to make, but that included a good 45 minutes of bobbin mess, so it really wasn't bad. I loved doing it and I learned a lot! Thanks Katie for letting me make you curtains. I hope you love them! If not, Ill take them back and hang them in my loft! haha, just kidding. Love you!
Love,
Jen
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