How To Make Simple Kitchen Curtains « Homemaker Cherry Menlove

How To Make Simple Kitchen Curtains

What you will need:

Fabric of your choice

Thread to match your fabric

Sharp scissors

Tape measure

Pins

Curtain wire, hooks and eyes

Sewing machine

For the ties :

One piece of fabric for each curtain piece measuring twenty inches long and one inch wide

How To Make Simple Kitchen Curtains

Yesterday was the first day that ‘it’ was felt in the air. Rain fell in sheets, the radio played ever so gently in the background and the kitchen was filled with the smell of baking. We were officially cosy and will stay that way for many weeks to come. We haven’t had a fire yet as we’re trying to source a piece of ironware that is a stupid size but I believe it will be on its way very soon. It’s also been fairly warm still and a sweaty brow, flushed cheeks and a bad mood are not attractive when one HASN’T yet reached menopausal age.

In the picture above you’ll see a very simple curtain hanging like an angelic cloud, crowning the area that I find myself in from time to time if I’m at the mixer. These kitchen curtains have just arrived in the room that we spend the most time in and they have made the lightest, most cosy and awfully pretty difference.

Often if a room needs a little more light our instinct is to keep the windows free from any kind of covering but it really depends on what fabric you use to cover them. If I had used a heavy lined Sanderson fabric then yes, the room would have become darker. But using a translucent white lightweight fabric has actually thrown MORE light in to the room. In the same way it does when it has snowed.

OK, here’s how you make them……

Hang your curtain wire on the frame or wall of your window (whichever you prefer) making sure that when the wire hooks into the eyes, it is nice and taut. This will make the curtains hang better.

Tip – If you have a wide window you are making curtains for, you could hammer a small nail into the top of the window frame (right in the middle of the two wire eyes and at the same level as them) so the wire can then rest on the nail, thus stopping your curtains from drooping in the middle.

Measure the width of the window you are making the curtains for
Double that measurement and that number will be the amount of fabric you will need for the width (our window measured 120cm so we needed 240cm of fabric)
Measure the height of the window and allow for at least another 6 inches to be added on to the bottom of the fabric to allow for the double hems and the channel for which the curtain wire will go through

Find a largish floor space, perhaps the living floor as there is NOTHING WRONG with carpet crafting. I am fortunate to have a studio but I still do most of my ‘stuff’ in front of the television watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians. You need a space where you can lay the fabric out fully.
Fold the fabric in half, width ways, and then cut in half . This will give you two identical sized pieces of fabric which will become your pair of curtains.

Take the first curtain piece and using your pins, double hem (allowing half an inch each per hem) along the top (width of curtain) and down the sides of the curtain

Note: Do not hem and pin the bottom of the curtain just yet as you will need to hold the curtain up to your window to get an accurate measurement for the length before you do this

Once you have hemmed and pinned all three sides, fold the top of the curtain over so you have a channel measuring exactly 3 inches

Note: Try and be as accurate as you can with your 3 inch channel measurement as you will need to re-measure the 3 inches out again a little later on

Pin the channel in place

Feed your curtain wire through the channel (being careful not to prick yourself on the pins!)
Hook the wire onto the eyes positioned on your window

Allow the curtain to fall to the windowsill
Using 5 pins, mark in a row where you would like the curtain to hang to
Unhook the wire from the eyes and then remove the wire from the channel on the curtain (again, being careful not to prick yourself on the pins!)

Lay the curtain out on the floor again

Using the first 5 pins as your initial guide, continue to pin the rest of the bottom of the curtain in a straight line

Measure one inch under the row of pins and cut along the curtain following the line of pins above

Double hem and pin the bottom of the curtain (the photo above shows both hemmed and pinned curtains)
Remove the pins from the 3 inch channel you made for the curtain wire (don’t worry, you will be measuring it out and pinning it again later) so you are left with a piece of fabric with a double hem on all four sides

Machine all four hems

Lay your curtain out on the floor and once again, fold over the 3 inch channel at the top of the curtain once more
Pin the channel in place again
Sew the channel in place

Tip: Why not sew the channel in place using a pretty criss-cross stitch instead (see pic)

Repeat all of the above with the other curtain
Your curtains are then ready to be hung and to be admired by all who see them.
Ha! (that’s not really a step but it’s quite nice to say out loud to ones self whilst admiring the curtains)

Now for the curtain ties……..

Here they are!

I cut strips of fabric that were twenty inches in length and one inch wide. I frayed the edges of the fabric to give is a more rustic feel and look and tied them around the curtains like this….