Another Easy Valance - Life on the Bay Bush

I recently finished curtain #3 of my Sister’s Christmas present. Only two more to go and it’s already July. Maybe I’ll have them all done by next Christmas.

Anyway, Curtain #3 is a valance for her laundry room. I didn’t really use a pattern since I knew what I wanted the curtain to look like and it wasn’t too complicated.

I started with my fabric cut into the shape of a rectangle. To figure out the width of the rectangle to cut, I used the following calculation. “Rod” left and right are the wide the that rod sticks out from the wall.

The length of the fabric was just how long I wanted the valance to hang down plus 1 inch (total) for the top and bottom seam allowances. Once my fabric was cut I used it as a pattern to cut the lining the same size.

With both the fabric and lining on top of one another, I folded it in half and cut an arch into the fabric. I cut both pieces at the same time to they would be exactly the same size. (If you were doing two valances, then I would recommend cutting all the pieces together so they would have the same arch.)

Here’s what it looked like after I cut the arch out.

And the same piece once I unfolded it. See how nice and smooth the arch is?

How to sew a DIY Valance without a pattern

I pinned the lining to the fabric (right sides together) and headed upstairs to my sewing machine.

Here’s what it looked like after sewing. (NOTE: To leave a space for the curtain rod, you can’t just sew around the whole thing. Take a look at the diagram in my last valance tutorial for more info.)