So this project started in November. I got all motivated, bought my fabric, sewed one panel in a short amount of time. And then never finished. until now. Whew.
Partly, because I made a mistake on the first one and didn't bring myself around to fixing it until now.
And because part of the mistake involved making ANOTHER trip to Joanns which is about 40 minutes away. ugh. which doesn't happen very often.
The only problem is that not only did I have to fix my first mistake, I had to RELEARN how I made it the first time.
Hopefully, with this post I can remember what I did (if I ever want to do it again).
I got a lot of good help from THIS website and a few good tips from THIS website.
There were two important tips that I also learned - make sure the fabric on both panals is going in the same direction. It seems very basic but if you have a pattern fabric it can be hard not to get confused (thankfully I didn't make this mistake, but almost did)
And secondly, make sure the grommet tape is going in the direction you want it to go. I had it all sewn on and finished when I realized I had cut out the grommet tape wrong (so the panals faced out instead of in. urgh)
In my opinion, it was worth going back a few steps to fix. Here is the difference:
This is without using the grommet tape:
And this is WITH the grommet tape. It makes a much more uniformed, polished look (at least I think so) by scrunching the sides of the fabric together.
* EZ grommet tape can be found in the home decorator fabric section at joanns.
My steps I followed:
1) So, I first measured out my fabric. I wanted them 90 inches long. I added 8 inches for the bottom hem and .5 for the top - so 98.5 inches long.
2) I measured out my lining. Total length subract 3 inches. (87 inches)
3) Sewed a zig-zag stitch on the top and bottom of my fabric.
4) Bottom hem: Pressed in the bottom fabric 4 inches. Then pressed in another 4 inches. Then sewed a blind hem stitch to finish it off. Good video HERE.
5) Bottom hem of lining: folded up one inch (right side up facing down) and pressed. then another. Sewed a blind hem stitch to finish.
5) Pressed in the top of fabric (.5 inches).
6) sewed fabric with lining. Right sides face each other. Leave about 3.5 inches on the top and 1.5 inches of fabric on the bottom. Sewed with a .5 inch seam. Pull lining to other side and repeat.
7) Turned fabric inside out - and pressed, leaving a even amount of fabric on each side.
8) Pinned the grommet tape on the top so it covered the edges of both the lining and the fabric.
9) Sew the grommett tape on - leaving an even amount of fabric on both sides.
10) Cut the fabric circles out. Scary! but don't worry, it will look good in the end.
Note:
If you use EZ grommets, the grommets will fit this tape. I did NOT use EZ grommets, and therefore had to cut additional part of the grommet tape away so it would fit. very annoying.
These are the grommets I used - easy to put on, just snap together (you have to put some muscle behind it, but still relatively easy)
So the other problem I had was my curtain rod - the original one I had was not strong enough or long enough (even though it said it went up to 120 inches). SO I ended up having to get a dowl at home depot and paint it. (and the dowl wasn't long enough, so I had to buy two. I did end up using the same finials though.
However, when I was putting up the second panal, I dropped the rod and broke the finial. urgh. and bent the pole a little bit. oh well.... such is life.
Here are some without the flash.... a little blurry and the coloring is a bit off but you get the idea.
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