The dining room remodel changed so many things and one of them was that the curtains in there didn't go anymore. New curtains were in order. I knew that I wanted to make them myself. I love the idea that I have curtains in my house that NO ONE else anywhere has. I started looking on-line for curtains that I could sew. I found these tie-top curtains that I really liked. I decided on an eyelet material because the window faces south, lets in lots of light and I really only wanted something that would frame the window. I knew that the curtains would never be closed - we have window blinds there for privacy. Tia and I found an off-white eyelet remnant at the fabric store on sale. So, score one for me! I had some of material left over from the table linens that I made and that would be what I used for the ties, but it wasn't quite enough. Luckily, the fabric store still had that fabric. Tia says that I am VERY lucky. Most times when you want a little bit more of a material, when you go back to the store they don't have it anymore. Score another one for me!! I started by stitching around the sides and bottom. Because the curtains are always going to be tied back, I did a curve around the inner corner so the curtain would fall right. (Tia's suggestion. I never would have thought of that.) I then stitched across the top. I used a scrap of material to test the right length and width of the ties so that they would look right and tie right. I made twenty ties. Two would be "paired up" and I thought five per curtain would be adequate. I pinned them on to see how it looked and discovered that I really needed seven sets to hold each curtain just right. But the material was floppy. I consulted with Tia and she told me to use interfacing to stiffen the material. I should try to get one-inch wide interfacing that I could iron on. Interfacing? I'd never heard of that. I figured that I'd go to the fabric store and there would be a lovely display of interfacing, easily marked and simple to select. When I got there, I saw no lovely display. I saw no interfacing display at all. I asked the clerk and was told that she was new, didn't really sew and wasn't at all sure what I was talking about. At least she was honest. But she did take me to some bolts of something that were not called interfacing but were probably what I wanted. There were some that were thick and some that were thin. Some had to be sewn on and some had to be ironed on. What to do? The clerk was no more help than that so I was on my own. I decided that since my material was pretty thin, I should go with the thinner choice. And I knew I wanted the iron-on option. But this was on a bolt, not in a nice package that was one-inch wide. So now I had to decide how much to get. The new, non-sewing clerk did know that most people got a quarter of a yard. Since I didn't want to take a chance at not having enough, I got half of a yard. I took my "interfacing" home and cut it into one-inch yard strips, using about half of what I had bought. I started ironing it on and discovered that there is a right side and a wrong side. I found this out because the interfacing was sticking to the damp cloth that you use to protect the material, per the instructions. Good thing I bought more than enough. I sewed the ties on and hung my beautiful curtains. But one curtain didn't look right at all. In fact, it was a little shorter than the other. Upon further investigation, I discovered that I had ironed on interfacing and sewn on ties to the SIDE of the curtain rather than the TOP of the curtain!! Oh boy!!! I ripped out the stitching on the ties and ironed-on more interfacing to the top. Now it was REALLY a good thing I had bought more than enough. I know myself really well. I restitched the ties and, with some trepidation, hung the curtains again. Perfect!!! This project took considerably longer than I had thought it would, but I'm very happy with the results.
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