Well, here's that kitchen curtain I told you about. I'll admit I had it so easy this time around because I got the 1 yard remnant piece of red broadcloth for a dollar and when I went digging around for some white cotton to do the ties with, I found some 2 1/2" strips of white cotton left over from a quilt I made for my sister a little over a year ago. That was a great find because it was free and it was already cut - no money and less work? I like that!
To make the curtain, I first held the piece of broadcloth up to my window. The fabric is 45" wide annd I got a one yard piece, 36". I decided to hang it short, since 36" is long enough (especially with the added length of the ties) for the window, and I wanted the fabric to have some body and some full gathers between the top ties. I then took it to my ironing board and ironed down about a half inch fold on the bottom then folded that in again, ironed and pinned and then stitched the hem. I used white thread, and it turned out pretty cute against the darker red.
Step 2 was the side hems. The side hems I only folded down once. I didn't need to fold it down twice because these were the selvedge ("self-finished" edges) of the fabric. Here's a picture of the two long edges after I stitched them. On the left, I folded down the corner because it was a little long. Sometimes when you iron fabric, especially if you're like me and don't measure or straighten up your edges, it will give and pull a little bit and you can snip the edge or turn it under like I did here, I hope you can see the picture okay.
For the ties I broke a few more rules (: I ironed the strips and cut them down to 18" (roughly, I only measured one and then used it as a base to cut the rest - I want them to be loosey goosey!) ...then I folded and ironed them in half. Normally for ties like this I would sew them down the raw edges and then fold them inside out....not this time. I sewed the raw edges and then did a tight zig-zag stitch down the seam. I really really really hate turning things inside out - especially tight little tubes like these. If you get a drawstring tool it has a handle and a long metal piece with a hook on it and is supposed to make things like that really easy. I was thinking today (and I didn't get to try this out because I don't crochet) that a long crochet hook might work well for this. Okay the final step for the ties was to fold down a corner on the end of the tie that would be exposed and stitch it to give the ties a more finished look (see it below), like you would see a ribbon tail done.
Last step of all was to attach the ties to the top and hem it. I folded down the top like I had done before on the bottom hem, about a half inch, ironed it and then folded it down over two of the ties, like shown in the picture on the right. After I finished the top hem I folded the ties up onto the hem itself and stitched them down again so they would pull up on the fabric flat and it wouldn't buckle. I think it turned out pretty cute and it probably cost me less than 3 bucks and under an hour of my time doing something I love.
Last minute thoughts... If you don't want to mess with fabric ties, grosgrain (pronounced grow-grain) ribbon is an easy and inexpensive alternative. You can also save some time and thread by sewing long strips of fabric and then cutting them as opposed to cutting and then sewing. Also, you could make double the length strips (36") for the ties and fold them under the hem to make two 18" halves instead of using two separate ties. This would work best with ribbon, which is not near as bulky as fabric. Folding the fabric under the hem would create a bit of a bulge and I'm not a fan of bulge.
I guess that's all for now, hope this was clear and somthing you can use in your house, happy sewing!
