Making Pinch Pleat Curtains - the result!

Over the weekend I started the curtain making process for our family home. In the last post I talked about materials & working out the quantities needed. Today I will show you the end results with a few tips along the way.
Sewing curtains is actually quite straight forward, but if you are working on large windows, trying to handle the sheer volume of the material can be the most difficult part.
  • I always press the seam lines so it is easy to sew and you will not needed to pin it.
  • I used a french seam when joining the panels of fabric together - sew wrong sides together, turn in other way and then sew right sides together. This seam is neat as no raw edges are seen.

  • When sewing on tape - you can take it right up to the top of fabric or leave a small overhang as I have done.
  • I also changed cottons - white for the tape upper stitch & matching colour to my curtain fabric in the bobbin which will show on the reverse side of curtain.

  • Add 4 pronged hook to tape to gather & pinch pleat your fabric and then you are ready to hang your curtain
  • To hem the curtains I hung them and did a quick pin at intervals. I cut my fabric, pressed the seams & re-hung to make sure it was even before sewing.

8 comments:

Kath said...

Beautiful job, just wish you had posted this before I had started my first attempt at curtains. I have made one half and am in the process of making the second one. To start with I don't have enough fabric to make the pleats look even. Never mind next time I will do a better job and my daughter seems to like them.
(-:

alissa {33shadesofgreen} said...

I am getting ready to sew some pinch pleat curtains for my dining room - your tips are going to be really useful. Thanks for sharing!

Unknown said...

Great job ! Can you come and make the ones that have been sitting at my place for a loooong time !

Anonymous said...

They look fantastic! What an amazing job you did on them... you do make it sound so easy... I imagine I would need a few practice runs though!
Flick x

Exquisite Accessories said...

I must remember that one just started on the building of the house (finally) & curtains like that would be gorgeous, you are a great teacher lets hope I can make them look as good???

Kirrily said...

What a wonderful job! I've just finished making some pinch pleat curatins in the same fabric & wondering if you can offer some tips... I used buckram tape & sewed the pleats rather than the four prong hooks. The trouble I'm having is getting this fabric to drape nicely - it seems quite stiff and doesn't fall or fold back nicely. Did you prewash the fabric at all, or steam the curtains once hanging? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Jodie @ The Haby Goddess said...

Kirrily, I don't think I can be much help unfortuntely. The curtains haven't been prewashed or steamed, I did iron them before hanging. I was lucky enough that they draped quite nicely when hung. My tape was quite rigid too so I don't think this is your problem, maybe the hooks have given it the little bit of movement that they needed. Hopefully with time, the weight of the fabric will create the drape you were hoping for.

Elizabeth said...

I just wanted to say thank you for this - my mum asked me to make some replacement curtains for the curtains her mother made her years ago. After pulling them down and looking them over I couldn't believe how easy they seem to be... thank you so showing me that it really is all just those little hooks who do all the work!