Pieced Linen Curtains

 

A while ago I had a friend give me a lot of old linens that she no longer wanted. Many of them were stained. All of them were beautifully embroidered. Since I have dabbled a little (just enough to be dangerous) in the world of quilting, I decided to try to piece them together to form curtains for my kitchen. If you think this is something you want to try, here’s how:

  1. Start by figuring out how wide your window is and then add 2 - 3 feet (so it will ruffle). Also, figure out how far you want it to hang down, and then add 6” (for the curtain rod pocket).
  2. Lay out all of the linens you are working with along the floor, arranging them the way you want them, keeping in mind how wide you want it to be when you are finished. Pin the linens together. If you are doing ladies’ handkerchiefs (the diamonds pictured), this will involve extra-careful pinning that also involves cutting away some of the adjoining linens. In mine, I didn’t want to sacrifice the design of these linens, so I pieced in some extra material as a spacer in-between the two adjoining linens and above the handkerchief.
  3. When the linens are pinned the way you want them, trim away the extra material from the top of the linens, leaving the desired length (Don’t forget the 6”!)
  4. Sew together all the pieces you have pinned (I sewed mine one over the top of the other, since they had finished edges already.)
  5. Hem the top of the curtain to give it a nice edge.
  6. For the rod pocket: Fold the top of the curtain down 3” and sew to the main body of the curtain at the point where the hem meets the curtain. Measure 1 ½” from this seam and sew a new seam parallel to the first. This will also allow a nice ruffle above the rod pocket.
  7. Hang and enjoy!

Note: I do not consider myself a quilter, and I am an average sewer at best. So, even if you have limited talent in this area (like me), I would like to encourage you, if you do have old linens around the house, to bring them out of the drawers and into the open where everyone can enjoy them with this craft.

 

 

If you do not see the table at the left, please click here.