Today I finished sewing a curtain which I’ve been working on, off and on, for over a week. Finally at least one of the windows in this house has a curtain! It was getting sort of urgent because (1) the window in question is that of the veranda door and was noticeably cold, and (2) the window sits right opposite the bathroom door, so anyone looking in that direction from outside has a view straight into the bathroom.
The hardest part was finding a suitable fabric. It was very easy to find Christmas themed fabrics, and to find traditional furniture fabrics. (You know the kind – they’re heavy, tend to have scrollwork or fleurs de lys or similar designs, and often very rich colours like brown, red, cream and gold. Not at all suitable for a relatively narrow hallway in an early 1900s wooden house.) I ended up ordering 2.5 metres of a fabric that was expensive relative to what I saw in most shops, but considering that I intend to have this curtain hanging there (and have to look at it daily) for the next 15–20 winters, it was well worth it.
Besides, it turned out that fabric ordered directly from the manufacturer is delivered on a roll, which means no creases at all, which means no ironing!
On day one I measured twice and cut once. No, actually I measured four times and cut twice, once for the main fabric and once for the lining. Then I pinned the lower hems.
On day two I sewed the lower hems and measured and cut the eight little loops.
On day three I zigzagged and then hemmed the edges of the eight fiddly little loops. 32 darn seams, meaning 64 knots to tie, and by the end of it I had knots swimming in front of my eyes even when I looked away.
On day four I pinned the loops in place between the curtain and the lining, pinned and sewed the top edge, and pinned the two sides.
On day five I sewed the two sides and reinforced the bases of the loops. Then I got overconfident and topstitched the top edge without pinning it (I had the main seam there to keep things in place, after all!) but the lining was slippery and the two layers ended up slipping so it didn’t hang straight.
On day six I did penance for my hubris by unpicking the entire topstitching seam.
On day seven I pinned the top edge and topstitched it again and hung up the curtain and was quite pleased.
PS: The fabric is from Sandberg and I bought it at Var Dags Rum.
It’s beautiful! I love the fabric you chose.
[…] in style and construction. If your memory is really sharp, you may recognize the fabric: this is the curtain I made for the balcony door back in 2008. Back then I expected it to hang there for the next 15 or 20 years. The door itself […]