DIY Curtains - Part 2

Last night I finally got round to doing some more work on the curtains. Over the weekend I had finished hemming all the sides and bottoms of all the curtains but had to stop as I had no pins!
The bottom and side hems are very simple, just fabric folded over then folded over again. The corners are just square, no fancy bits. I ironed everything to keep the hems flat and neat. Did have a little problem with the fabric shifting slightly as it wasn't pinned it ended up looking surprisingly neat, if I do say so myself!

Simple hems

So once I had taken delivery of some pins from my little sister (thanks Sarah), it was time to get round to pinning on the curtain tape. I bought mine from Ikea at the same time as the fabric and then cut it in half to double the distance. This did give me some slightly raggedy edges but managed to keep them fairly intact.

Ironing the hems

As described in an earlier post, the top hem is double the size of the other hems to accommodate the curtain tape. I started off using my handy tape measure but soon was confident enough to fold the hem by eye. Luckily this worked.

First pin, first injury!

The curtain tape consists of two bits, the loops to attach your curtains hooks and the drawstring to create your ruffles. Should point out here, after looking at the final curtains, I think it would have been better to have put these on the other way up (you will see what I mean in later pictures).

All pinned and ready to sew

I managed to pin the entire length with only once pricking my finger. I would say that's quite an achievement! Next step was sewing. As in some places the fabric was doubled over a few times, I ended up using the sewing machine manually to make sure the needle didn't get stuck. All in all it was very easy, the pins even stopped any fabric slipping (should have used them before really).

Sew, sew, sew.

Should point out that this isn't my sewing machine, it's been borrowed off my granddad (Thanks Opa).

And finally, the moment you have all been waiting for....

The finished curtain! 

(yes I have only done one so far, and it was the smallest but hey)

Should brighten up the van a little

And yes they even have pleats

 As you can see in the final picture, the pleats are pretty close to the top. In the rest of the curtains I am going to flip the curtain tape so they are a bit lower down.

Anyway one down, five to go.