My mom is an expert in curtain making.  She doesn’t do it professionally although I have urged her to do so on several occasions.  She needs no pattern and often comes up with designs on her own.  So, we have always had custom designed and made curtains.  From when I moved out into my first apartment to now all I need do is pick out a fabric or two and explain what I was looking to achieve and she was able to whip it right up for me. The same has extended to my sister’s of course.  And I have to tell you, there is nothing that succeeds in making a home look more polished than beautifully hung curtains.

My sister Lindsey recently got married and they just bought their first home! Such an exciting time! New beginnings and a fresh start in designing and decorating.  So, she, as I and my sister Vicki have done picked out some fabrics and styles.  Today I am going to walk you through some simple cotton tab-top curtains my mother designed and made for Lindsey’s eat in kitchen.

First the fabrics:

My sister chose a simple sage green and beige checkered design for the main fabric and a plain sage fabric for the accent color.

The first step whenever making custom curtains is to take accurate measurements. You need to measure from curtain rod to floor or to the bottom of the sill, whichever you decide you want to do. In this case we are going right down to the floor. Then you need to allow for hemming. In this case, the bottom of the curtain will be the accent piece and it will measure 18″. So that 18″ doubled plus 2″ for a hem is added to the rod to floor measurement along with a 2″ top hem.

The first step is to sew the two pieces of fabric together.

Just using a simple sewing machine stitch. Be sure you have lined up the edges of the fabric. And be sure you are sewing the wrong sides of the fabric facing out so that when you see the fabric from the front side it looks seemless.

Then you have this and you can treat it like one piece of fabric.

Before starting any hem, the first step is to iron. With a big piece of fabric like a curtain, it’s a lot easier to not use pins and ironing will assist with that.

This is my mom’s little trick for measuring as she irons.

Now you can run this through your machine.

A simple stitch is all you need for the left and right of the panel.

This is how you make the tabs… picture by picture.  The first step is to get a length of fabric about 4″ wide by 6″ long and iron it down, then sew, then turn it inside out, iron again, pin it on the top of your panel and sew on.

Once all your tabs are in position, the next step is to make it so they pop out the top without seeing the rough edges.  In order to do this you create a back panel for the top with a 4-6″ piece of fabric.  As always start off with iron it, then pinning it to the top of the panel and sewing.  Once that is set, you put in a simple top stitch to keep everything in place and falling nicely.

Now to finish the last part of the panel, the bottom.  My mother always makes sure to give the curtains a custom look by adding in an invisible seem where you don’t see actual stitching.

My mother likes to be sure that her curtains are finished nicely with invisible seems at the bottom.

This is what you want it to look like on the back side of the curtain.

To demonstrate, she did it in red for ya.

Then pull it in.

And you will have an invisible seem on the other side.

This is what you will see on the front side of the curtain, only when it is in beige, you won’t see anyting, hence the invisible seem.

Then iron again.

“Are you looking to spruce up your home for the holiday season? You may have extra money to get that done, let’s take a look at your mortgage and find out. Rates are great, let’s see if we can save you money!” ~Lori Medeiros