Tuesday, June 5 2012

Did you get all that?

After posting this picture a while ago, some people ignored the diving child and the dirty windows and focused on the very cool zig-zag (0r “superhero” as we like to call them) curtains instead, inquiring how they were made.  They were easy to make, although a bit time-consuming.  So, here is a brief tutorial on making tab-top curtains without even sewing a stitch!

Materials:

Iron

Hem Tape (ultra bond)

Fabric

Sheets (bought the flat sheets RE from Target on clearance)

Scissors

Here we go:

First, lay your pre-cut (add 7 inches to whatever length you want from rod to floor)  fabric pattern-side down and iron it flat.  I ironed on the carpet.

Measure and mark an inch seam for each side, a 3 inch seam for the bottom and a 4 inch seam for the top; mark with pencil.

Then lay your sheet on top of the ironed fabric and line it up so that the lower right-hand corner of the sheet sits just inside of the penciled seam marks. Iron. Iron. Iron.

Finally, cut off the thick sewn side edges of the sheet (#3) and SAVE.  These will make your tab-tops later.

Smooth the liner sheet so that no wrinkles or obvious bulges are seen, as in picture #4 above.  Get sheet as taught as possible and continue to check this throughout this whole process.  Very important.

Next, line up sheet with all pencil marked seams of fabric and cut to size.

Get out the hem tape.  I use Ultra Bond.  I don’t know why…it just sounds extra strong, and it is.  Lay hem tape on pre-measured lines of fabric.  Do not put hem tape on the liner sheet at this point.  We will be attaching the sheet in a moment.

Be patient with this hem tape.  The tape must be heated 3 seconds and then cool before pulling off or it will not stick!

After all sides are hem-taped, peel off.  Line up lower right-hand corner first and work your way Up and Away (this prevents sagging later), smoothing and keeping sheet taut.  Iron on sheet to hem tape.  This creates the liner of the curtain.  See Step #10.

Now, to create the actual hem of the curtain and make them look slick and sewn, place more hem tape (yep, more!), as close to the edge of the fabric so that your folded hem will cover and stick OVER the attached liner.  I did  long sides first.  Repeat all sides.  Don’t forget to smooth the liner and watch for bulges or wrinkles (of course there will always be some…so don’t panic!).  This ends at step #15; and now for the Tab Tops!

From the saved sheet seam you cut off a while back, (for me it was the difference of a day due to other weekend happenings and multitudes of interruptions.  Did you notice the pictures are now dark?), cut 5 inch strips.  I cut 14.  Depending on the width of your curtain, you may need more or less.

See pictures below.  Using the end of the curtain with the 4 inch seam, measure approx. 6 inches apart.  Why six?  The was the most even I could get with my curtain width.  Anyway, mark those spots and place a tab.  Now cut one 1/2 inch hem tape and one 1 inch hem tape section for each tab (#19).  Notice, the 1/2 inch tape goes to the top of the curtain, and the 1 inch sits on the liner a bit.

Repeat the hem tape steps, peeling and ironing.  This time, flip the tabs over and iron each end of the tab.  The longer you hold, the stronger the tape once it cools.  Be patient here.  It’s almost done!

See how cool they turn out!  All that back-breaking ironing was worth it!  Check out that tab-top!  Sweet.

Images: All Laura for Monkeysonmyback

I hope that made some sense.  If not, I read the following online tutorials and came up with this method.  Check out these blogs with similar projects, and some  much better tutorials!

~Laura

YHL

Take the Side Street

Design a la Mod

House of Hepworths - Awesome tutorial here!