Dress Your Window with Elegant Silk Curtains
Are you looking for an elegant style of curtains that you can make yourself,
for a special window in your home? This
beautiful curtain features a smocked top heading, created with fabric, lining
and gathering tape available in the home décor area at Mary Jo’s Cloth
Store. A purple silk fabric worked up
beautifully for this style with hand stitched glass beads for even more glamour!
Gathering tapes are a great way to create curtains or valances. To use shirring tapes, finish your curtain or
valance allowing for a double fold of material on the reverse side at the top. For silk or other thin fabrics, be sure to
add lining material for added body. You
will need 2 ½ to 3 times fullness across the width of the flat, finished
curtain.
After the curtain panel is finished, pin the shirring tape on the
reverse side, and machine stitch using a thread that matches the face fabric. You can drop the tape down from the top to
create a ruffle like shown, or line it up even along the top.
Sew the tape to the curtain using a matching thread. Depending on the tape you are using, you will
need to stitch two or more times across the top. Be careful not to stitch across the gathering
cords that are woven into the tape!
After it is sewn, fish out the shirring cords on one end and tie
securely. On the opposite side, fish out
the cords, tie and pull to gather the curtain to the desired fullness.
The specific tape used on this curtain gives a diamond-smocking
appearance.
To enhance the appearance of the smocking, it may need to be
hand-stitched at the top, bottom and center of the gathers. On this curtain, small glass beads were added
to accent the stitching.
To install the curtain on the hardware, insert pin hooks by stabbing
them into the back of the gathering tape, spaced about 4 inches apart. You will find the pin hooks and a wide
assortment of high quality drapery poles, finials and
brackets in the drapery hardware area at Mary Jo’s.
