My Sewing Studio

Saturday, July 21, 2012

LaVonne's Curtains

A former coworker asked me to hem and redo a couple sets of curtains, and also to remake some long, dusty blue chiffon panels into something with more pizzazz for her cadet blue bathroom.  From 84" long, I cut off 20", then gathered the curtain up until they measured 36" long at the bottom of the scallops.  I used some of the fabric I'd cut off to make the rosettes.

For each rosette, I cut a strip about 60" long by 3" wide.  I folded this strip in doubles and then thirds until it was 4" x 3" and several layers thick.  Then I took off the corners so that one side of the strip was somewhat scalloped, like the petals of a rose.  Next, using the flame of a candle, I melted the edges just enough that they curled a bit.  After tapering one end to make the center of the rose, and running a gathering stitch along the straight edge, I pulled the gathering thread until the strip was reduced to 21", then rolled it, starting with the tapered end, and making sure the top edges curled toward the outside, as rose petals do.


I sewed the bottom gathered edge together securely, and then pinned each rosette to the top of the gathers I'd made in the curtains.