Thursday, September 18, 2014

Crafting in September-Finished Kitchen Curtains

Curtains for Carole's kitchen are done.


That window is short. I still bought six inches too much but it didn't feel really wasteful in the pocketbook to lop off six inch strips. I dropped those pieces into the quilt scraps box.

I started the last pair, a set for the side door.


Instead of a Star Wars or Star Trek print, I opted for something brighter. Ninety-five percent of the people who come to the house come in through the side door. Carole's favorite color is yellow. I wanted those curtains to be bright and cheerful and to radiate sunshine and happiness. Plus, the only other themed fabric was dark and this window faces south. It's going to fade over time. I think there is nothing worse than faded dark fabric. If they are in the house long enough to cause this to fade, it won't look bad.

The problem is that the door window is only 22 inches wide. The fabric is 44 inches wide. Ah! Just cut it in half. Um...no, that won't work.


See, I have to hem the sides and once I put that in, the fabric width shrinks to about 20 inches which is not wide enough for the door. Plus, she has two small rods on the door, each about 14 inches in width. So I was going to need to lop off some of the width of the fabric. (See how happy a design this is? Yes, it's seersucker. I've always liked that kind of fabric.)

I started measuring and realized that seersucker, with its gathers, has a line I can follow without pinning. Very carefully, going slow, I followed the line outside the pins and cut off a portion of the width. The window is just as long as the kitchen window so I anticipate having to lop a bit off the bottom. The excess is in the quilt box. Some day...

Because I'm working with two rods, I have to then cut the remaining chunk in half.


The nice thing about the weight of seersucker, when I folded it in half, made sure that the edges matched, and ran my hand along the fold, it stayed folded. It did not move as I slowly cut the piece in half. Here's the result.


One piece has the printed edge, which tells of the fabric's maker and has the dye numbers on it. That seam, which is usually one half inch wide, gets folded over and stitched. The actual cut edges I have to turn twice to prevent unraveling. That's why I had to cut more than just severing the fabric in half. There needs to be enough, when completed, to cover the width of the window.

One piece was pinned for the start of the side seams before I went to bed. I have to change the color of thread in the machine now. I'm thinking black is not a good match.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

1 comment:

  1. Delighted to see you have kept busy :)
    The curtains look good.
    My Mom loved to cross stitch and often got the magazines you have :)
    Nancy and the kitties

    ReplyDelete