I've been living in a drafty, old farmhouse in the rolling countryside of Northern North Carolina for almost six years. I absolutely love living here. It's beautiful. It's peaceful. We have great weather and lots of room both inside and outside for the kids to play. But we decided to keep the old, wavy glass windows our home was originally built with. So, I've been making quilted curtains for them to help with the drafts. Here's how I do it.
First, measure the window. Do you want the curtain to cover just the window itself? Or the frame, too? Take accurate measurements of the area you want the curtain to cover.
Then I do a little math. I determine what block pattern I am going to use for the curtain. Something simple is best for these. Above, I used a 4" snowball. I simply divided the horizontal measurement of my window by 4" to determine how many snowballs I needed to sew for each row.
I divided the vertical measurement of my window by 4" to determine how many rows of snowballs I needed to sew.
Then...I sewed!
When my measurement does not divide evenly by the number of blocks, I usually add border strips to my curtain to lengthen or widen it, as above. This is my bathroom window curtain. I love the way it looks when the sun shines through, a little bit like stained glass.
After the top is all sewn together, I make a quilt sandwich like you would with any other quilt: backing, batting, quilt top and do some simple quilting. Horizontal lines across the quilt works well for these simple roll-up shades. For this most recent shade I quilted a simple loopy design across each row of snowballs.
Bind the quilt, as you would any other quilt.
Add a hanging sleeve to the top, backside of the quilt, as you would any other quilt. It only needs to be wide enough to easily accommodate the curtain rod you will be using. I cut mine from a 6" wide length of fabric. This usually works well for me.
My kitty, William, testing out the quilty warmth of the curtain. It passed inspection.
I make 4 ties for each curtain. To do this, I cut 4 pieces 2-1/2" wide by the width of the fabric. Fold each tie in half lengthwise, pin, and stitch closed using a scant 1/4 seam. Stitch all the way down the long side and across one of the short ends.
Clip the corners, to make turning easier.
Then, turn each tie right side out. I use a knitting needle to ease the turning and poke out the corners. Press each tie flat.
Turning under the raw edge 1/4", baste the ties to the top of the curtain, two on the front, and two on the back. The front and back ties should each be about 6" in from the edge of the curtain and lie opposite each other.
Sew across the top of the ties using a zig-zag stitch. I sew back and forth across each tie 2 times for security.
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Hang the curtain and enjoy! To open and let a little sunshine in, I roll the curtain up from the bottom and use the ties to secure it at whatever height I desire.
Here's a couple of other curtains I've sewn so far.
This was fun, all triangles. It's the first one I made.
I have a pair of these hanging in my upper stairwell.
Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!
Get Creative!
Jennifer Schifano Thomas
