Making Curtains For The Little House ~ Remodel - Part IIII

Hi Everyone.  We hope you had a wonderful Easter Holy Week and a happy and holy Easter Sunday.  We had a wonderful time celebrating this special event with family and friends and we all brought warm covered dishes and enjoyed a delicious Easter Sunday dinner hosted by our daughter Sharon and her husband Charlie. 

In previous posts we viewed the remodeling of the little house down the hill from our main family home.  If you would like to see these posts you can click on the links below.  The first link shows the outside remodel and the next three posts show the inside remodel of the little house:

1.  http://sweetsoutherndays.blogspot.com/2014/05/a-before-and-after-project-and.html 

2.  http://sweetsoutherndays.blogspot.com/2017/03/guest-house-remodel-part-i.html

3.  http://sweetsoutherndays.blogspot.com/2017/03/guest-house-remodel-part-ii.html

4. https://sweetsoutherndays.blogspot.com/2017/03/guest-house-remodel-part-iii.html?m=0

Today we will show how some of the curtains were made for the inside windows.  In the below photo we again see the "blue bedroom."  Our daughter Stephanie made the draw drapes seen at the double doors at the back of the room.  She made these curtains all in one weekend.  I have no idea how to make these curtains and was so thankful she took on this huge project.  

Plus, she made the ruffled monogrammed pillow for the bed,  along with the ruffled Euro pillow shams and the matching bedskirt.

The curtains you see in the below photo are swag and jabot curtains 

attached to a board and placed above the window.

These swag/jabot curtains are very easy to make by just following the pattern instructions.

I have had this McCall's curtain pattern for years and have used it many times making curtains for other windows in our home up the hill,  and also making curtains for friends.  When looking at the pattern, the bottom left top photo as you can see is the pattern I used for these single windows for the little house.

I also used the bottom right design of this pattern to make curtains for our family-room for our main family home up the hill. Below you will see photos of that family room and how different the curtains can look using the same pattern.  There are different variations of this same pattern and I used the pattern shown in the bottom right on the pattern photo.

This pattern design worked out well for these double windows.  At that time I chose a floral Laura Ashley fabric with a light blue background and added matching tassel trim.

The below photo shows the three double windows in this section of the family room.

And in the below photo this is the view you would see if standing at the fireplace looking across the room.  There are five double windows in this room and I thought this pattern worked well for all of these windows.  

I did not want the curtains to be overpowering so did not have the side jabots come all the way down.  And, as you can see the inside jabots were shorter than the outside just to give a balanced look to the windows.

Dragging my feet a little it took me about 2 months to finish these five sets of curtains.  

I liked the wood framing around the windows and didn't want to cover it up, 

so I made the curtains to fit inside the frame of the windows.

The pattern advertises these curtains can be made in three hours.  Even though the curtains are very easy to make, it took me way many more than three to make these curtains.

I used this pattern to make the single window curtains for each bedroom of the
little house and the double French doors upstairs.

A pattern similar to this is available at the two sites listed below just in case you are interested in finding a similar pattern.

https://butterick.mccall.com/b3804

And at the below link you will find many beautiful curtain designs, plus a simple swag/jabot.

http://mfay.com/index.php?id_category=10&controller=category

When making the curtains for the little house, using the swag/jabot pattern, it is necessary to mount the curtains on a board which will be placed over the window.  So you simply measure the width you wish at your window and make the curtains and the board for the required length.  When you have the pattern it will tell you in detail each step to take.  It sounds complicated, but it is not at all.  If I can do it, anyone can.

You begin by stapling a lining material to cover the board the curtains will be mounted on.

You wrap the board just as you would a gift package only you are using
fabric and heavy-duty staples instead of paper and Scotch tape.

I used the dining room table to lay out the fabric for cutting.

As you can see the pattern offers different lengths.



We were looking for fabric that would bring the outdoors in.
I loved the birds and the dogs seen in this fabric.

This fabric is a heavy linen/cotton blend fabric and it is called Dog Toile.  The above and below photos are all the same fabric.  The top pattern shows a pair of pheasants and in the below photo we see the hunting dogs in print.

I found this fabric at a local fabric store.  After looking online I see that this fabric has been discontinued.  This fabric came in the blue as seen in these photos and also in a gold and red color.

The below photo shows the cut fabric pattern.

The below photo shows the cut lining of the pattern.

After the lining is sewn to the fabric, turned and pressed then
we are ready to sew the sides of the pattern.

Below we see the pattern pulled up and sewn into place.
It is simple you place A to A, B to B, etc.

For this pattern I thought it would be pretty to add this matching tassel-trim which was very easy to sew along the outside edges of the pattern piece.

And the tassels were also added to the jabots which you see in the below photo.  You can see how easy that part of the pattern would be to put together....You just match A to A and B to B, etc.

You sew all of the stitches across the top for the swag and both sides of the jabots.  Then using a heavy duty staple gun you staple the jabots and then staple the swag across the top.

Now you are ready to mount the curtains above the window with an L-shaped bracket.
And that is it!

In the adjoining bedroom to the left we basically followed the same design as in the blue room.

This fabric is called Deer Fabric Red Toile Woods Nature Woodland Lodge print and was available at our local fabric store.  After looking online it seems this particular fabric is also discontinued.  We covered this chair cushion and matching foot stool with the same fabric as the curtains and bed pillows.

I'm not a decorator and I am sure they would have done these rooms differently, but I loved this fabric so much I totally loved using it everywhere.

This fabric with the deer in the print fits right in with the country setting of the little house.

And these curtains were made just as described for the blue room curtains.

Looking at the below photo I had a flashback in time.  Before my first born daughter Debi was born I went down to Sears and bought this wonderful Kenmore Sewing Machine.  I can't believe that was over 40 years ago and it is still sewing perfectly....Would not want to use any other sewing machine.

And there they are ... It is just that easy!



Join us in the next post as we see the upstairs curtains and the patterns used for them.

Thank you for coming along for a visit today and seeing the steps necessary to make these curtains.  There are lots and lots of curtain design patterns choices out there which include something for everyone.

Wishing you a wonderful rest of your week with many blessings wherever you may be.