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How to: Simple Trimmed Window Treatments

SimpleDecoratingTips.com How to Simple Trimmed Window Treatments

I’ve sewn miles (literally!) of window treatments, and thus have developed my own little tricks and tips to accomplish the look I want to achieve, but maybe in a little off-beat way. Here I show you how I sewed the simple trimmed window treatments for the two staggered windows on the landings of the front stairway. Here’s how I did it…

These are the pair of windows on the landings of the front stairway:

SimpleDecoratingTips.com staggered windows on landing of from stairway

They are mostly visible from the living room, and I certainly could have just treated them in the same style as the living room, (which are treated with simple white roman shades) but I wanted these two windows to be a little snazzier.

I’ve seen lots of old houses like ours that has stained glass windows for these landing windows. Even though ours didn’t, I still thought it would be in keeping with the style and age of the house, so I found this pair of stained glass windows HERE!)

I hung the pair of stained glass panels in the top section of the double hung windows, but…

SimpleDecoratingTips.com stained glass window on top

the windows needed a little more…

That’s where the simple trimmed window treatments comes into the picture…

For the flange edge, I had the brown embroidered fabric leftover from something years ago, as well as the red and teal cord welting. It originally was quite expensive so I was thrilled when I had just the perfect amount to trim these four panels with it.

The black and white print fabric was a find at Walmart! And it was a bargain. So funny to mix the super expensive fabric with the bargain fabric, but once it’s all put together, none would be the wiser. (except now you know) 😉

SimpleDecoratingTips.com simple trimmed window treatments detail

So there’s the story of the fabrics… Here’s the story of how I put it all together…

I cut the 4 panels long enough so that I’d have at least 4″ more than the finished length. The amount to be added greatly depends on how fat the rod is obviously… the wider the diameter of the rod, the larger the rod pocket needs to be, thus more cutting length to add to the panel. (my rods for these were pretty small, so I figured only about 2″ of fabric for that pocket)

The other variable in determining cut length would be how high you wanted the header to be. (the header is the ruffled part above the rod) I wanted the header to be super small, only about 1/2″, sometimes there isn’t a header at all, it’s just preference and what style the curtains are going to be.

Then, the last part of figuring how much to add for the cut length is the hem allowance.

For the hem on a simple panel like this, I turn it in 1/2″ twice and stitch. That means I need to allow for 1″ for the hem, but that 1″ gets folded up the back… make sense? (and I know this isn’t the normal way to hem draperies, but it’s what I do and it works really well for a simple, casual curtain like this. I don’t like to see the stiffness of a 3″ hem on the bottom of a gathered curtain. See a little further down in this post, and I explain more…)

Once you’ve determined your length and cut all the pieces, it’s time to sew them together.

(check out this post to see how to make your own welt cord!)

Here you can see a simple sketch of the seam that connects the main fabric and flange edging fabric with the welt cord sandwiched in between. Using a zipper foot on your sewing machine with the needle position all the way over to the left can make a very nice tight seam when sewing on cording.

SimpleDecoratingTips.com sketch of joining 2 fabrics and trim

I basically always sew white lining to the back of any window treatment I’m making. (I’ll have to write a post on just that… so many reasons!)

I made the lining width narrower than that width of the main fabric and edging flange fabric combined, because I wanted the edging flange fabric to fold over. I figured that the edge of it would be somewhat visible and I didn’t want to see the white lining. So I made the lining the width of the main fabric width alone.

Sew the lining to the combined main and flange fabric, (right sides together):

SimpleDecoratingTips.com sketch of lining onto facing

When it’s finished, you would have a tube.

Next I turned the tube of fabric right side out, and pressed it so that the flange fabric was folded in half and the seam of the lining and main fabric was the other fold, like the sketch below shows.

SimpleDecoratingTips.com sketch of flange sewn in

Now from this point, there are a couple of options to finish the panel top and bottom.

  1. You could turn it back inside out, and stitch the top and bottom, (like a pillowcase) leaving an opening to turn it right side out and then top stitch or blind stitch that opening closed. (in that case, you’d need to rip a small opening at the two sides in the side seams for the rod to go through. And top stitch across to define the header and rod pocket places.

or the second choice is what I’ve sketched below:

SimpleDecoratingTips.com simple where to hem sketch

This way of finishing the bottom hem and top header works too. Just fold and press over the bottom edge 1/2″ twice and top stitch. Then for the header, fold and press over 1/2″ then the amount you figured for your header and rod pocket. In my case it was 2 1/2″.

A word of warning! When you’re sewing the lining and front together like this, you need to be extremely careful that they are lying completely flat to each other. (I accomplish this by laying them totally flat and pressing them, and using lots of pins to hold it in place.) Because if they’re not totally flat, hence not totally even in length to each other, what you could wind up with when you hang them is the lining pulling the front fabric up on the bottom, or visa versa. That’s why this isn’t the normal way one would hem draperies, and it’s perfectly OK and probably better to hem them separately, but I’m just telling you how I do it super quick and fast. I’ve worked this out, so that it works well for me. But, I also use a long basting stitch, so that if when I hang it, it is bunching or tugging up the bottom a bit, I can easily rip it out and adjust it.

But again, I wouldn’t recommend this type of hemming for long draperies, it’s nearly impossible to get long lengths of fabric to be exactly the same length, so you’ll wind up with bunching somehow. This system works OK for me on shorter simple curtains like this just great though.

SimpleDecoratingTips.com simple trimmed window treatments

By mixing 3 different fabrics and trims together, I was able to mix the color palette and ‘weave’ together my own colorway for the window treatment. I have blacks and brown and blues in the living room, so these finished simple trimmed window treatments pull that colorway up to the stairway and add that pizzazz and warmth I was looking for.

I hope I explained well enough how to make these simple curtains, but if not, and you have questions, please feel free to ask me in the comments below! I will for sure answer your questions!

Here are more sewing tips and tutorials:

Fabric Covered Buttons DIY
DIY Bed Pelmet
How to Sew a Pleated Valance
Front Entry Portiere
Simple DIY Curtain
SEW Dog Kennel (Bunny Hutch) Fabric Cover
How I Made Curtains without a Sewing Machine
DIY Simple Curtain Panel
How to French Knot Wreath Pillow
How to Fix a Quilt that is too Small
Vintage Wicker and Step by Step for Easy Sew Cushions
DIY Window Treatments
How to Simple Trimmed Window Treatments feature image with sides
Valance Cornice Board Re-Do
Before and After Kid's Rocking Chair Redo
sewing felt christmas pillows

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Welcome to Simple Decorating Tips! I’m Liz, the author, and I’m so glad you’re here!

My goal is to encourage you with DIY tips, techniques and tutorials so you feel empowered to join in the fun! Along with this DIY blog, I have a DIY shop, Frame and Frills!
Frame and Frills is in Wisconsin. I stock amazing DIY products! Fusion Mineral Paints, ReDesign Transfers, Decoupage, Waxes, loads of DIY Goodies, re-done Furniture and more! Even if you're not close to where the shop is in Wisconsin, good news... I ship nationwide, (USA) daily! Check out the link here and let's get your DIY on!
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Welcome to Simple Decorating Tips! I'm Liz, the author, and I'm so glad you're here! My goal is to encourage you with DIY tips, techniques and tutorials so you feel empowered to join in the fun! Along with this DIY blog, I have a DIY shop, Frame and Frills!
Frame and Frills is in Wisconsin. I stock amazing DIY products! Fusion Mineral Paints, ReDesign Transfers, Decoupage, Waxes, loads of DIY Goodies, re-done Furniture and more! Even if you're not close to where the shop is in Wisconsin, good news... I ship nationwide, (USA) daily! Check out the link here and let's get your DIY on!


Disclosure Policy: According to FTC guidelines, I want you to be aware that some of the content of this blog may be a source of income and therefore may be used to promote products, services, or other businesses. I will only choose to promote products/services/businesses that I feel will be beneficial to my readers. While I hope to generate a small profit for my time and effort to create this blog, I hold myself to the highest standard of integrity. I appreciate my readers, and make it my goal to deliver quality, honest material on this blog through each post. Thanks for reading along, Liz

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Sharing is great! Please feel free to share this blog with your friends, as well as on Facebook and Pinterest and Flipboard and Houzz and YouTube the more the merrier! I appreciate you stopping by. But please remember that all photos, images, text and content are owned by SimpleDecoratingTips.com. So anything you share, please be sure it always links back to my original post it came from. Please do not remove watermarks, crop or edit anything without written permission from me first.

Disclosure Policy: According to the FTC guidelines, I want you to be aware that this blog is a source of income and may occasionally incorporate endorsements or testimonials and shopping links. It is important to me to disclose this to you. The content of this blog is a source of income and therefore may be used to promote products, services, or other businesses. I will only choose to promote products/services/businesses that I feel will be beneficial to my readers. Products provided to me by my advertising partners for my review are given to me free of charge with no cost to myself. This does not ensure a positive review of the product in any way. While I hope to generate a small profit for my time and effort to create this blog, I hold myself to the highest standard of integrity. I appreciate my readers, and always make it my goal to deliver quality, honest material on this blog through each post. Thanks for reading along, Liz

Disclosure Policy According to Federal Trade Commission guidelines, I want you to be aware that this blog is a source of income and may occasionally incorporate endorsements or testimonials. It is important to me to disclose this to you. The content of this blog is a source of income and therefore may be used to promote products, services, or other businesses. I will only choose to promote products/services/businesses that I feel will be beneficial to my readers. Products provided to me by my advertising partners for my review are given to me free of charge with no cost to myself. This does not ensure a positive review of the product in any way. My truthful opinion will be what I state, no matter if I'm getting paid or not. Accuracy and truth are the priority for me on this blog's information, no matter if it's about a product or anything else. Not every product or service or store etc. may be mentioned in each and every post as an affiliate. While I hope to generate a small profit for my time and effort to create this blog, I hold myself to the highest standard of integrity. I appreciate my readers, and always make it my goal to deliver quality, honest material on this blog through each post.

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