Reversable Curtains Tops

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Welcome to SewVeryEasy, my name is Laura. And spring is here, and there’s no better time for making a new set of curtains for my sewing room window. Now I just want the toppers of the curtains because I like my curtains as open as I can in my sewing room. I love all the natural light. I also like a little color on the curtains. And I have found the most appropriate fabric for my sewing room. It’s “Sewing Tools” from Timeless Treasures and it’s got spools of thread, scissors, buttons. What’s really great about this fabric? There’s so many different colors in it it will go with any color so whatever your favorite is. I was going towards the orange because well, I thought the orange would be fine, but when I found the turquoise, well, that was the color for me because it’s one of my favorite colors. Now these curtains are very easy to make and they’re going to be reversible so choose two of your favorite colors and, well, it is easy. Now I was able to find really nice thread that’s going to match this and that’s going to be important. Because it’s reversible you’re going to want to have thread that is going to blend in so you will not see the stitching. To make the curtain toppers I’ve bought two yards of the main fabric and two yards of the contrasting fabric, and that’s going to give me four tops for the curtains. And they’ll both be reversible. So with each yard you’re able to get two toppers because they’re going to be 18″ high from the curtain, and 18″ and 18″ is 36″, so you’ll be able to get two panels from each yard of fabric. So to cut the fabric it’s very easy. We are going to half fold; here’s the fold and here’s the length of the fabric with the selvage here. You’re going to measure over 18″ and cut an 18″ piece out. Then you’re going to be able to remove the selvage here, because it’s very important to remove this. And then you will be able to do all of your fabrics the same size. So once they’re trimmed up, then you’re able to sew the layers together. So take your right sides together and sew them together. And you are going to sew down the long side on both sides, not the short side. You’re going to sew down all the way down the long side. And when you do that, you’re going to have this big tube and that’s what you want. Now I would recommend that you sew a quarter-inch seam because you really won’t need more than that. And once you have this long tube, take your seam and press it to the darkest fabric on this side and this side, so you’re still going to have this big tube, but the seam will be pressed nice and flat. The next thing we need to do is do a rolled hem on the short side here where you have the little end. To make a rolled hem, you’re going to first of all turn your fabric a quarter inch. And then you would turn again a quarter inch. And you’re going to stitch right along that edge. So you can sew a little bit and then just as you come along, turn your first quarter inch then turn the second quarter inch; just take your finger and just press it like this and then sew again, and then as you go along you do the same thing. You fold it under twice, give a press with your finger, and continue sewing. And by doing that it will save you time from having to go to the iron and press it once to press it over again. So now we have this very large tube and it has a rolled seam on each edge. Now the fun happens. From the seam you are going to measure up 4″ and mark it all the way along. And be very careful that you do keep it very straight. So once you have your 4″ mark, you’re going to fold it along your 4″ mark all the way. So what happens is you now have a 4″ hem here, but when you turn it over you also have 4″ here. So you need to press it on the 4″ line and put the fabric nice and flat, and you can press the whole thing so you have 4″ on one side and 4″on the other side. Now we need to “stitch in the ditch,” and that means you are going to just sew right along this seam. And go all the way along this seam with a straight stitch and then flip it over and stitch in the ditch all the way along this seam. Now for this one I want blue thread in the bobbin because I don’t want to see that hem. So I’m going to use a matching thread in the bobbin. So this is what I have: My 4″ hem, a big opening, and another 4″ hem. Now all the hard part’s done. The next is going to take you one more seam to finish the curtains, and this is going to be for you to decide where the seam is going to go. We’re going to make an area where you can put the curtain rod, but before we decide that, we need to decide how we want to hang the curtain. For example, if I’m going to have the curtain rod in here, this is how my curtain is going to hang up. And if it’s reversed, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 is how it’s going to hang up. If I decide that I’m going to do the curtain rod in this side, this is how the curtain rod is going to look when it’s hanging, and on the reverse, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 is how it will look hanging. So now the toughest part of this project will be deciding where you’re going to want to put the rod to hang up the curtain. So you can choose the rod here, or you can choose the rod here. For myself, I’ve decided that I want this as the bottom of my curtain. So my rod is going to come into the top here. Now in order to finish this rod you need to mark 1½” down all the way around and sew the 1½” with a straight seam all the way along. So all four curtain toppers are now done. We’ve stitched the layers together here, we’ve stitched the layers together here, and we did that 1½” stitching along the top. Now in order to work these curtains, all you need to do is use the second hole. So the top here 1½” that you did, that’s going to be a little ruffle on the top. So you’re able just to bring the curtains all the way through. You have a choice. You can have the curtains hanging this way, or you can have the curtains hanging this way, and if you really can’t decide, well, you could always do that 1½” from the bottom and then you would have options of hanging it up this way. So here you have the curtains this way, or you can have the curtains hanging this way. And no matter which way you have them, they will look nice from the roadside. Quick, easy, reversible, nice looking from the outside, nice looking from the inside. Well, it can’t get much easier. The hardest part is going to be, well, choosing the fabric. I’ll put a link in the description to the fabric that I used and as always Thank you for joining me Today on SewVeryEasy. Feel free to subscribe and, as always, come on back. And let’s see what we’re sewing next time
in the sewing room. Bye for now!