More curtains

Before I start the Christmas crafting posts I just wanted to write a wee post about another pair of curtains that I made.

A couple of months ago I made a pair of bathroom curtains for my Gran which also featured in my very first blog post.  Well once I had made them my other Gran started to hint that she needed a new pair of kitchen curtains!  I should know by now that I can't make for one without the other but somehow I always forget.

I thought it would be a good idea to write down what I did to make the curtains.  Now I am not really qualified to tell other people how to make curtains, and there are lots of tutorials out there, so this is really more of a note for my own future reference!

I started by measuring the curtains she already had up to get my finished measurements and then added 12cm to the length and made sure I had 8cm on the width for the hems.   I started by checking that I had a straight edge for cutting the first curtain then lined up the pattern to ensure that I managed to match the pattern across the two curtains.

I then created a 2cm double fold hem for each of the sides.

I then stitched the sides down using the straight stitch on my machine.  Actually I was very lazy and just used a strait stitch to do all my seams - no blind hemming for me! I know I was cutting corners here but to be honest the stitches vanish into the fabric and I think it looks fine.

I then folded the top down by 2cm and created a 5cm double hem at the bottom. I then struggled for ages as to how to miter the corners properly at the bottom, before settling for a mock mitered corner as per this tutorial!  I think it looks ok.  

The last set of curtains I made both my mum and Gran mentioned that when they have had curtains made for them before there was a small pocket for the extra hemming cord to sit when they are hung.  So I pulled out a small strip of off white fabric from my stash and created this little pocket to include under the heading tape. I did this by eye and didn't take any measurements but its about 3" long and 2" wide.

I then added the header tape.  I cut it to the correct width and ziz zag stitched down the two cut ends to stop it unraveling, making sure I didn't catch the cords, before attaching to the fabric.  This went nice and quick, until I realised that I had sewn a pin in-between the tape and curtain fabric. Can you see the pink pin head? Oops!

Pinning the tape on the second curtain.

The only bit of hand sewing I did was to stitch down the mitered corners.

They then got folded up for a week until I went to visit my Gran.

In pride of place (sorry for rubbish photo - it was getting dark so the light is a bit off!)

See you all soon x

P.S. I love to chat so feel free to leave a comment!

Curtains

Just realised that I never mentioned that the curtains were a success. 

 

They fitted perfect, the bottom hem was not all wobbly and most importantly my Gran was really pleased.

 

I didn't actually take many photos - although my mum took this very bad one of me up the ladder hanging them up!

 

If I was making them again the only thing I would do differently would be to either create a pocket or not sew down one of the short sides of the curtain tape to hide the excess string.  Quite happy for a first attempt though.

Getting started

So tonight I managed to finish two projects so I thought what next......well I have been thinking about starting a blog for a while and thought now is as good a time as any to get writing!

First off a little bit about me.  Well my name is Susan and I live in Glasgow, Scotland and I am planning on writing about my adventures in sewing, knitting and cross stitch.  I also intend to be honest and let you know what has worked along with what has gone wrong and what has been badly fudged!!

So what were the two projects I mentioned at the top of the post.  Well the first is a pair of curtains for my Gran.  Not my normal type of project but, having never made curtains before and being the good granddaughter that I am, this has been the project which has occupied my last few evenings.

The curtains are 2.2 meters long so hemming the sides was going to be a tedious process. Anyone who tells you that hemming 10 meters of fabric is fun is just plane old lying!  It was however made easier with my new sewing gadget.  That thing is awesome!

Getting the curtain tape on and trying desperately not to accidentally pull the strings.

 As you can see the process took up the whole of my living room floor.  I had to even get the big DIY tape measure out when creating the hem as none of my dressmaking ones were long enough.

All neatly folded and ready to go to its new home.

Hopefully I will get out to my Gran's to hang them at the weekend and that she likes them. I really like the fabric, its a light polycotton and I was sleekly hoping that there would be more left over!

My other project is far more exciting.  It is the Lottie Blouse from Sew Simple Sews which came free with the second issue of Love Sewing Magazine.  Still need to get a decent photo wearing it as the OH was out tonight (probably why I managed to get as much sewing done as I did) so I think that may have to wait for another day.