I decided I would go on a mad curtain-hemming spree, and hem a ton of curtains at once.  So the living room curtains are hanging with pins in them as I type. And I moved on to … the dining room:

Isn’t the fabric lovely? Guess where I got it … Ikea! It’s perfect.  I’ll have to detail how I made did the casing for these  -it has a more modern look … I’m tempted to change my living room curtains to match.

Artwork on the wall opposite the mirror, thanks to Alex. Photos from Sherwood Gardens in Baltimore.

Almost there … I’ve pinned up the middle section to see how it looks with my planned hem.  I like the shortened length, so I’ll go with the 3 inch double folded hem.  And I’m going to move the curtain rode hooks out 6 inches on each side, so more of the window is showing. I want the bay window framed, not covered.

Run 30 minutes tonight - check.
Hang curtain rod - check (with lots of drama, unfortunately)
Hang the short curtain pieces (still need to be hemmed) to see how it looks - check!

They look great.  I have to do all the seams on the long panels, but that shouldn’t be too bad.  And these clearly hang down way too far, but they should look fine once they are hemmed.

I flipped a coin, and my ashtanga yoga dvd won last night.  I hope to hang the curtain rod tonight though, with the unhemmed short panels, and take a photo.  And I’d love to have these curtains done by the end of the weekend.

I’m making curtains for our living room bay window.  I wanted something on a large scale - not just curtains on the windows themselves, but around the full bay.  I decided on a “theater” style, for lack of a better description:

Very basic outline above.  The general plan is to have 2 long panels on either side, and 2 short panels in the center.  I may need more short panels, if I need more fullness.

So - where do you start making basic curtains?  Well, I measured and determined that the curtains, at finished length, need to be 91″ long from the curtain rod to the floor.  This does not include the extra fabric above - the “header”, or full gathering at the top.

I did some research and determined that, if I use a 3/4″ curtain rod (a pretty standard size), I will need to make a casing of 1″ - 2″, depending on the amount of ease I want.  I went with 2″, because I don’t have the curtain rod yet, and I want to be safe.

I also went with a 2″ header.  If it is much higher, it can look messy.  I wanted a little header, but nothing crazy, and I don’t want it to flop over.

Hems are often double folded and then stitched down, so I decided on a standard 3″ hem, and doubled that to add 6″ to the bottom. 

After adding all that together … the length of the fabric for a long panel should be 103 1/2″ (the extra 1/2″ is for stitching the top down), but I rounded up to 105″, for 8.75 feet even.

I followed the same plan for the shorter panels, adding extra measurements for the header, casing, and hem (all the same as listed above), but obviously the length is shorter because it will just frame the center top of the window opening.

Last night, I cut all pieces, and I even managed to sew one of the shorter panels, minus the hem.  I’m holding off on the hems until I get all the panels sewn.  Then I’m going to hang them on the rod and double check my measurements.  I’d hate to do all this work and end up with curtains that are just this-much too short.

Correction to my measurements …. I bought a 1 1/4″ diameter curtain rod, and … oops, this casing is too small.  I opened it up by 1/2″ and it works now. So the minimum casing you’ll want for a 1 1/4″ diameter curtain rod is 2 1/2″, and maybe as much as 3″ …

Has anyone used blackout lining before?

Here is an example of my (wrinkled) curtains, with and without. It’s pretty amazing how much light they block out now.

And a detail:

I bought it for, I think, $5.99 a yard at a local chain store.

It’s very easy to sew.  My only problem is that I’ve been sewing it onto very cheap curtains.  They aren’t very good quality, and that is even more apparent when you try to sew a big piece of rectangular lining to it.  Hmm .. not square.  It was annoying, but then, this is just a utilitarian project to block light for now.  If the curtains start to bother me, I’ll look into buying blackout shades and then I can make cute curtains.