Hello I'm Angela Broughton
from PolesandBlinds.com I have decided to break my
curtain making videos into 3 sections.
Part 1 and 2 are about How to Make the basic curtains
The other videos will about making the various headings such as pinch pleat or pencil pleat,
eyelets or any of the other types of headings.
I have made the curtains a very small sample size
otherwise it takes too long making them for the purpose of the video.
Measure your finished curtain length across
the whole width.
Pin in place
Take your heading tape and pull the strings
out from one end. Tie a knot securely
and trim of the surplus tape.
You will have a left hand curtain and a right hand curtain
so make sure the knotted end of the tape
is always to the centre of the curtains
so the knot can be sewn into the tape
so it will not notice
on the leading edge of the curtains.
Mitre the corner
with just a simple fold
so you have a neat
edge to take the tape to.
Fold under and pin the
tape to the edge of the curtain but drop
down half an inch from the top. It's always a good idea if you can to start the tape
where there is going to be a hook because if you have it midway
you will have a flat section of curtain showing that isn't gathered.
Pop a pin in
keeping the tape at 90 degrees to the hem line.
Just a quick tip
that I have learnt over the years -
always make sure that you have the hook pocket
on the front side of the tape or you will
end up having sewn all the way across
to find you have the position for the hook sewn to the face of the curtains
then you will have to undo them and start again.
You need to have a double row of pins
keeping the bulk of the curtain to the left side
so you only have a small section by the machine head.
Mitre the other corner in and pull the strings free
and pin.
Machine the heading tape on, holding it firmly going slowly over the pins.
Sew both rows
and then sew down the sides of the tape making sure
the knot is sewn into the tape on the leading edge and
the pull cord end with the strings
free on the outer edge.
Machine down to neaten off.
Generally you need about 4 spaces
between each hook so that will
be about 9 hooks to the width. I am going
to show you a couple of alternatives to just having a normal pencil pleat.
One type is just a puffy top
that stands up above the top of the tape.
First cut a strip of fabric, you often have bits left over
from when you cut off the pattern repeats.
Make it the length of the curtain heading plus a bit for the seams.
Sew up each end on the wrong side of the fabric strip.
With this particular
puffy top
to achieve the maximum amount of puff
do not press the strip
in half along the fold
or you will end up with a solid crease line running through the puff.
Trim off the corners and turn through each end of the strip
and then pop it into the top of the pencil pleat heading and pin along
making sure you have both seams together.
Use a good number of pins to save it from slipping or puckering.
Machine along
the top row of stitching
making sure
the bottom edge of the pencil pleat tape
is also well fixed
otherwise it will slip and you will have slanting pencil pleats that are not sitting evenly
So here you can see the little upstand
sewn into the top of the pencil pleat tape
and the second row of stitching finished on the tape.
Trim off the cottons
and then pull up your pencil pleat tape
Here you have your pencil pleat heading
with the upstand.
Its worth a mention that if you are unsure how to do the gathers to make sure they
are evenly spaced, if you pop a pin at the midway point
between each individual width of curtain,
then you roughly be able to see that you have
the centre in the centre.
Turn the curtain over and just puff this up over
the top of the heading tape
so it just gives an interesting little effect.
This is quite a fun treatment
for children's bedrooms for instance
if you pick out the puffy top in a
bright contrasting colour
or in a kitchen
where you might have a plain fabric, you could do the contrasting top
in an alternative colour. So there you have a pencil pleat heading with a contrasting narrow puffy top.