Life on the Bay Bush

Easy Valance

Sister built a new house last year and (like me) she was lacking in the curtain department.  So for Christmas I told her that I would make curtains for several of the rooms in her house.  I’ve only finished two of them and its four months after Christmas, but who’s counting?  Luckily Sister didn’t mind!

Easy Valance

First, I measured the width of her window casing from the outsides.  Then I added two inches for each side and half an inch for each seam allowance. (5 inches total)  I added two inches to each side since that was how far the pocket rod I was going to use stuck out from the wall.  If you want your curtains to be much wider than the window casing you would need to account for that in this measurement.

 

I cut a rectangle piece of fabric and lining the width of the measurement above and 17 inches long.  (This was just an estimate based on how far I wanted the curtain to hang down and allowing for the seam.)

Pin the fabric and liner (right sides together) and sew along the pattern diagrammed below.

 

I stitched all the way across the top and bottom.  Then stitched one side, leaving a 3 inch opening for the rod at the top.  For the other side, I only stitched 1/2 way up to allow the opening to be large enough to flip the rightside back out.
Clip the corners so the corners will be nice and sharp.
Once it was flipped right side, I hand-stitched the rest of the up the side (still leaving an opening for the rod).  I didn’t take a picture of this step.
Give it a good ironing.

I made the straps using a coordinating fabric folded and stitched (right sides together) as shown below.  Then iron and flip.  I used a safety pin to attach them together so that I could easily adjust the length if I needed to.

Here’s a picture of Sister with the finished product on Christmas morning!  I think it turned out pretty cute!  (And you can’t even tell she was 6 months pregnant with my little nephew in the picture!)
I love these curtains because they are easy and don’t take a lot of fabric!

p.s. I’m linking up to Home Stories A to Z, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, By Stephanie Lynn, I heart Naptime, Serenity Now, and It’s Overflowing.

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