Sorry this post won't have pictures because I spaced out and forgot to take any last night when I cut down my old curtains. When I cut the fabric for the last shade I will try to remember to take and post some pictures.
Figuring Out Your Measurements:
So you need to know what size to cut your fabric. First you will need to decide what size hem you want on the shades. I typically prefer to do an even 1" inch hem on each side (1" being the part of the hem you see), and without a lining I need to fold that same amount under so I add 2" to the measurement. This allows for a nice drape, plenty of room in the bottom hem for the dowel and a little more structure around the edges than a smaller hem would provide. (Right now I am using a smaller hem but that is because I'm re-purposing old curtains and rather than rip out the 1/2 " hem I'm using it as much as I can, and matching it on the sides I needed to cut. Because I am using a smaller hem overall, I have to add a 1" channel into my bottom hem so that I can slide my dowel in.)
So if you are going to use a 1" hem you need to add 2" to each side of the shade, so a total of 4" in each direction. Also we need to add an extra 1" of length to account for the part of the shade that is going to wrap around the top of the hardware board and be stapled into place. So that means that we are at 4" added to width and 5" added to height. (remember to use the width of your board as your starting width.)
As an example my kitchen window was 35" wide by 35.25" tall. I wanted the width of my fabric to be the 35"+4" for hem giving me 39". Height was 35.25"+5" for the hem and the board wrap giving me 40.25". So my fabric for my kitchen window needed to be cut down to 39" by 40.25"
Cutting The Fabric:
I have a hard time cutting fabric in a straight line, so I typically buy cotton. I love the ease and speed of being to measure in one direction snip the fabric and just tear it knowing it will go in a straight line. But, cotton isn't always ideal for making shades or curtains because it is so thin. Also, since I'm re-using the old curtains, I don't have a choice in fabric this time, polyester it is.
I cut a straight line in the fabric by first laying it out as flat as I could on the floor (I have no other surface in my house that I can lay a full curtain out completely flat without worrying about cutting something under the fabric). I then took my tape measure and measured from the edge over and marked my cut line with a straight pin. I moved the tape measure up about 5" and measured and pined again. I repeated this across my fabric. I then cut along from one pin to the next, pulling the pins as I went along.
Save your scraps from cutting the fabric, you will need some of them later.
Roman Shades: Supplies and Hardware
Roman Shades: Hemming and Adding Rings
Roman Shades: Final Assembly
Roman Shades: Hardware Modification and No-Sew Methods
No comments:
Post a Comment