Running up curtains
No, I've not turned into a kitten with a fondness for soft furnishing mountaineering. I've not done a sewing blog post for ages so thought I should, especially as I made a curtain yesterday.
It was a completely impromptu make due to the scaffolders. Yesterday I returned home from a nice dog walk on the beach with the kids to find that as I sat on the toilet I could hear the scaffolders directly outside the bathroom window. Eek!!! I had to hope they were facing the other way as I hurriedly finished and escaped with some possible dignity intact.
At that momemnt I dived into my sewing drawers, dragged out some material, dusted off my sewing machine and set to work. In just over an hour I had finished my new bathroom curtain. No more showing workmen my backside intentionally or otherwise!!!
It was all quite simple as I wanted the curtain to let light through so I decided not to line it. So it was just one layer of material with some tabs to hang from. I chose this pretty flower fabric I had and some blue with a white pattern for the tabs. Annoyingly the material I had wasn't big enough for one piece to cover the window so I had to join two pieces in a really obvious place- right down the middle.
After a good press (it was soooo creased) I attempted to match the pattern so the material flowed nicely. Unfortunately in order to match it properly I'd have run out of material for the width required. So I had to take the hit on my perfectionist tendencies and sew where it fit and worked. So I sewed and then pressed the seam open and trimmed the edges of the seam to appease myself (who else was going to see the back of it!).
The seam worked out quite nicely and despite failed pattern matching, and wasn't too obvious as I had feared. When the curtain is closed you can see it if you look but when open it's not too bad.
Next I hemmed the edges in order to tidy it all up and make it uniform.
Next were the tabs at the top. I didn't have enough material to keep it all the same but I like the contrast the blue and white makes. Also, I wanted it tabbed so it was easy to place and take down when the building works were complete. I cut three tabs, pressed, hemmed and then folded in half lengthways. I placed it on the top of the curtain and sewed in a rectangle around the bottom of the tab to attach it strongly to the curtain. I repeated this with all three tabs and suddenly I had a curtain ready and waiting to be put up!
It's not so pretty from behind but it worked well for my intentio. Again who was going to know?!
I'm afraid to say I then passed the job on to my husband, mainly because I was heading out to rehearsal. He put up some cup hooks and got some bamboo (as per my suggestion) and hung it over the window. Now it doesn't cover completely to the top but I was privacy I wanted more than anything and there's not a lot that can be seen through the top. So I was happy with the finish.
So now I have a curtain and a little bit of pride in the fact I made it, and quickly too!
[caption width="720" id="attachment_1236" align="aligncenter"]
The three tabs and bamboo cane all ready to hang up[/caption]And here's the finished article - ta da! I'm happy with that.
So dignity restored (if I ever had any in the first place) and curtain made.
Now I'm off to sew a pair of curtains that I've been meaning to for years. I've a feeling it'll take more than an hour this time.
Ta ta.
Josie.
It was a completely impromptu make due to the scaffolders. Yesterday I returned home from a nice dog walk on the beach with the kids to find that as I sat on the toilet I could hear the scaffolders directly outside the bathroom window. Eek!!! I had to hope they were facing the other way as I hurriedly finished and escaped with some possible dignity intact.
At that momemnt I dived into my sewing drawers, dragged out some material, dusted off my sewing machine and set to work. In just over an hour I had finished my new bathroom curtain. No more showing workmen my backside intentionally or otherwise!!!
It was all quite simple as I wanted the curtain to let light through so I decided not to line it. So it was just one layer of material with some tabs to hang from. I chose this pretty flower fabric I had and some blue with a white pattern for the tabs. Annoyingly the material I had wasn't big enough for one piece to cover the window so I had to join two pieces in a really obvious place- right down the middle.After a good press (it was soooo creased) I attempted to match the pattern so the material flowed nicely. Unfortunately in order to match it properly I'd have run out of material for the width required. So I had to take the hit on my perfectionist tendencies and sew where it fit and worked. So I sewed and then pressed the seam open and trimmed the edges of the seam to appease myself (who else was going to see the back of it!).
The seam worked out quite nicely and despite failed pattern matching, and wasn't too obvious as I had feared. When the curtain is closed you can see it if you look but when open it's not too bad.
Next I hemmed the edges in order to tidy it all up and make it uniform.
Next were the tabs at the top. I didn't have enough material to keep it all the same but I like the contrast the blue and white makes. Also, I wanted it tabbed so it was easy to place and take down when the building works were complete. I cut three tabs, pressed, hemmed and then folded in half lengthways. I placed it on the top of the curtain and sewed in a rectangle around the bottom of the tab to attach it strongly to the curtain. I repeated this with all three tabs and suddenly I had a curtain ready and waiting to be put up!
It's not so pretty from behind but it worked well for my intentio. Again who was going to know?!
I'm afraid to say I then passed the job on to my husband, mainly because I was heading out to rehearsal. He put up some cup hooks and got some bamboo (as per my suggestion) and hung it over the window. Now it doesn't cover completely to the top but I was privacy I wanted more than anything and there's not a lot that can be seen through the top. So I was happy with the finish.
So now I have a curtain and a little bit of pride in the fact I made it, and quickly too!
[caption width="720" id="attachment_1236" align="aligncenter"]
The three tabs and bamboo cane all ready to hang up[/caption]And here's the finished article - ta da! I'm happy with that.
So dignity restored (if I ever had any in the first place) and curtain made.
Now I'm off to sew a pair of curtains that I've been meaning to for years. I've a feeling it'll take more than an hour this time.
Ta ta.
Josie.
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