How to Make Your DIY Drapes Look Professional

A few weeks ago I shared with you a tutorial on how to sew pinch pleat lined drapes.
When sewing my drapes I wanted them to look as professional as possible.  One of the ways I achieved this was to sew a blind hem on my drapes.

What is a blind hem?  A blind hem is a stitch that is barely visible from the right side of the fabric.  The best part is that it is easier than you would think.  If you can sew a straight line, you can sew a blind hem.

Ideally you would start with the blind hem foot that came with your sewing machine.  Here is what the foot looks like from the back...

...and the front.  If you are unsure which foot is the blind hem stitch foot, just refer to the owners manual for your machine.  Most machines come with this type of foot.  If you don't have this foot you could still do it, you would just have to guide yourself carefully to keep the line straight.

Next select the blind hem stitch on your machine.  On mine it is #17.  See how the stitch looks...that is typically the universal symbol for the blind hem stitch.

For the hem...I folded my fabric up two inches and pressed it into place.  

Then I folded it another four inches and pressed it for the final hem.  Then I pinned it into place.

Now if you were to sew the hem with a straight stitch the stitches would be visible from the front, even if you used the same color thread.  

Here comes the important part...Take your hem and fold it back as shown above.  You want there to be about 1/4" of the hem to sew on as shown.

Next, line up the fabric under your blind hem stitch foot.  Notice how the fold is lined up with the cut out part of the foot.  

I used green thread so that you could easily see the stitches.  For my actual drapes I used an off-white thread so that it completely disappeared.  Notice how only each sixth stitch catches the fold to the left.

This is all you would see from the front of the fabric (see the green dots).

Here's what the blind hem looks like on the actual drapes that are now hanging in my guest bedroom.  That's a super up-close photo.  When standing in the room you cannot see any stitches and even up close all you see is some faint dots.

It's as simple as that.  I hope now that you know how easy it is, you too will try to sew a blind hem on your next project.

I always love and appreciate your comments.  Have a great day!

-Judy

New Window Treatments

My Grandmother always used to say that you can't trust March.  We ended up with over 4" of snow on Friday and since it snowed most of the morning, school ended up being closed.  Saturday and Sunday melted all of the snow with beautiful sunny weather and over 50 degree temperatures.  

The drapes I ordered from Pottery Barn arrived on Thursday.

I spent a couple hours in Calico Corners trying different fabrics and nothing really worked that well.

Here are the Pottery Barn drapes laid on the couch.  You can see how it picks up the right colors.

It has the right blue and the golden tone picks up the wall color.  It's a much more subtle alternative to the previous drapes I had made that the dry cleaner shrunk.

The new look is so different from the old look...I'm not totally sure how I feel about it yet.

I don't know...what do you think?

-Judy

Partial Basement Reveal and Liar Liar Pants on Fire

I am happy to report that the remediation of the mold issue in the basement is complete!  

The pretty part has begun.  

The walls and ceiling are painted a different color than before, giving the room a lighter and brighter feeling.  We also replaced all of the overhead lighting with brighter LED lights.
I will do a post about that soon.  It makes a HUGE difference.

Here is a different view of the room.

We changed up a few things.  

For starters we moved the Ikea Expedit from behind the couch.  There was just way too much going on visually before.  This gives the room a much lighter look.  We also spread out the trophies.  Before the media unit was filled with all of my kids trophies.

I scaled down the trophies for the wall unit...

 and added some books for a little interest.

The rest of the trophies got moved to the Expedit unit.

Notice anything missing from the window?

Remember the drapes that I had to have dry cleaned because of the remediation?

Remember how they shrunk 7" at the dry cleaner and the dry cleaner said that he has been in business for 25 years and nothing like this has ever happened before?  Remember how the dry cleaner kept swearing that he dry cleaned the drapes even though I continually asked if he had washed them?  You can click here for that full story.  By day three the dry cleaner's wife said she would iron the drapes to try and stretch them.  When I got them home after the dry cleaner stretched them, they looked like an old worn out t-shirt...really like a rag. It was at that point that the dry cleaner finally admitted that they had washed the drapes.  100% linen...and they washed them.  Seriously??? They reimbursed me for the cost of the fabric and the cost of the dry cleaning.  

However, before I go and order the same fabric, I figure I should use this as an opportunity to see if I can do something a bit better.  I always loved those drapes, but maybe they were a bit too bold and competed with the focal wall.  So, thanks to PicMonkey, I am trying out some other options.  The first option is a ready made drape.  They actually cost less that the cost of new fabric and will save me plenty of time.  They are also made of linen so they have that great texture.  They are are much more subtle than the previous drapes.

If I decide to make drapes, my fabric options are endless.  I love the idea of an Ikat pattern.  This one seems to have all of the colors I have in the room, but hard to tell.  I also found some other Ikat options that may work as well.  I'm probably going to stop by Calico Corners today and order some swatches before making any final decisions.

So what do you think of the newly renovated basement so far?  

Know of any great Ikat patterns I should be considering?

Make sure you stop back tomorrow when I will revealing my craft/sewing closet.  It's pretty awesome!

-Judy

How to Make No Sew Drapes

One of my all time most popular posts is a tutorial on how to make lined pinch pleat drapes.  Since that post, I have received many emails from people who want to make their own drapes, but just don't sew. 

With that in mind... today I am going to show you how to make custom drapes, even if you don't sew.   

 When I came across this fabulous fabric from Calico Corners...

I knew it would be the perfect jumping off point to start to add some color to my basement.

I promise that these drapes are easy to make.  If you can iron, you can make these drapes.

I ordered 5 yards of fabric (on sale for 25% off) to make two panels.  

My drapes finished length ended up being 87".  Honestly I probably should have ordered 5 1/4 yards just to avoid the stress of matching up the pattern, but luckily it worked out.  

I cut the 5 yards exactly in the middle and lined it up from there.

The secret ingredient to any no-sew project is a product called stitch witchery.  

I already had the rod and rings from my previous drapes, so I knew I just had to make a narrow header to clip the rings onto.  I started by ironing a crease about 1 1/4" on the top of the drape.

Then I folded the fabric again, this time over the stitch witchery.  Working in small sections I ironed it into place.  You can follow the directions on the stitch witchery, however, you just press down for ten seconds or so, without ironing it back and forth.  Then I did the same thing on both of the sides.  I folded the sides on the salvage end and then folded it again and pressed the stitch witchery inside the two folds to "sew" it all together.

Once the drapes were hanging, I pinned the hem in place, and then removed it and

 ironed the hem  using the stitch witchery again.

It was that simple.  The drapes look absolutely beautiful in the basement.

Lighting is still an issue downstairs, so it was next to impossible to get a decent photo.

It took less than an hour and a half to make both panels.  It probably could be done in an hour, but I wasted too much time worrying that I may not have ordered enough material.  

Before I even began the project, I took the fabric and hung it on the clips to determine whether or not I would line the drapes.  I had bought the twin sheets from Walmart thinking I would be lining these drapes.  However, like I said, the lighting is at a premium downstairs and I didn't want anything to darken the room anymore than it already is.  Also, the fabric is a high quality fabric that has a beautiful linen texture to it.  Lining it was unnecessary (and time saving).  

I hope you will give these a try.

-Judy

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