A bit of a ‘Maker Monday Moan-Fest’ coming up I’m afraid.
I purchased some curtains from Dunelm for my living room window and French door; I liked the fabric, pattern and the colours helped to tie together the various bits of furniture in the room.
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When checking them hanging from the curtain pole, several things became apparent…
First – they were too short and were sitting above the window sill. Yes, I could have moved the curtain pole but that would throw out the French door curtain pole so they would look uneven. A bit OCD of me I know, but hey, I had a vision of how I wanted it to look.
This wouldn’t have normally been a problem; I’ve hemmed and extended curtains before and I can sew, so should have been a relatively quick fix.
However…
When looking at them hanging, I noticed the edges hadn’t been stitched properly and the outer patterned layer and lining were billowing away from each other. This in itself wouldn’t be too much of an issue; a stitch line to seal the outer edge to the lining – job done right?.
Then…
I noticed they were twisting. When I looked closer, it became apparent that the fabric had been cut off grain. The eyelets at the top were also uneven and out of line, making the uneven hemline more pronounced.
Those of you who come to my sewing classes know the importance of ensuring everything is cut on grain, and sadly whoever cut these, made a major mistake with the grainline.
You may then say…why didn’t you return them…well, again, I had a vision and these curtains fitted it and I hadn’t found anything else that suited the room. They also only came in small selection of different lengths, and I needed an in-between depth.
Cue major sewing project to deconstruct the curtain hemline (which exposed the terribly uneven seam allowances that ranged from 0.5cm to 2cm), cutting a new hem facing panel to neaten the edge and provide some weight (from old curtains!) and hand-sewing it in place. These curtains are huge and this took a lot of time!
Then……
To prevent the front edge from twisting and looking majorly off grain, I re-balanced the front edges, folding the fabric along the pattern lines so they at least looked straight and hand stitching the seam allowance to keep the folds in place…for four curtains…both sides…that are 1.5 metres wide by nearly 1.5 - 2 metres long across the window and door.
Take a look at the process photos below to see how small the seam allowance was in places!
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It was definitely a labour of love, and several times during the process, some choice words were uttered about them, but I’m really happy with how they have come out. They look much better when hanging and have settled well. I also bought the matching cushions (they were perfectly fine and didn't need any alteration 😉)
If you ever buy curtains, always check that they hang properly and preferably straight! And to Dunelm - perhaps have a chat with your curtain quality control team?
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