How to produce Scalloped Cafe Curtains
With its typically ornate pole, the café curtain is a window therapy designed to offer a bit of privacy while letting in light and air. Light- to medium-weight cottons and blends are great choices for this particular scalloped curtain which covers only the lower half of a window and can be suspended by bands attached to fabric tabs. Scallops are generally two times as broad as they are heavy and are separated by 1/2- to 1-inch tabs. Use sheer cottons for kitchen curtains. Midweight cottons work nicely to create a stunning home decór look.
Measure your window from top to bottom. Halve the dimension and add 6 1/2 inches — 4 1/2 inches to your scallop facing and 2 inches to the bottom hem. Measure the window in the side to side; multiply that number by 1 1/2 to factor in fullness throughout the panel, and add 3 inches to your side hems.
Buy fabric for every single panel and sufficient interfacing to piece a strip 4 inches wide and so long as the panel width. Place the fabric right side down and square one raw edge. Step with that edge and mark the cut lines; pull the fold line — Line A — to get your scallop allowance and pull all other hem allowances; cut on the fabric as well as the interfacing strip. Put the fusible side of the interfacing to the back side of the fabric, along Line A and 1/2 inch in from the raw edge of the fabric, then fuse.
Fold and press on the side hems on the marked lines and again 1/2 inch from the raw edge. Machine stitch, using a long-stitch or a blind-hem setting, then press. Fold and press on the bottom hem along the drawn line and again 1/2 inch from the raw edge. Machine or hand stitch, then press.
Produce the scallop pattern by drawing two parallel lines that the finished width of the panel and 2 inches apart from the pattern newspaper. The top line is Line A; the second is Line B. Mark the focal point on every line and link the marks; fold in the center and tuck the layout paper into the back. From the center point on Line A, measure 2 inches and mark. Step 1 1/4 inches and mark. This represents half of the center scallop and the initial tab. Step 4 inches and mark; measure 1 1/4 inches and mark. Repeat this sequence until you arrive at the side hem. Make alterations in the width of the final scallop, and allow to get a tab in the edge of the panel.
Put the edge of the circle template on Line B and then adjust it between the marks on Line A; pull round the template; duplicate for every scallop. Transfer the design to the other region of the pattern paper with tracing paper. Unfold and pin the pattern into the interfacing, lining up Line A on the pattern to Line A on the interfacing. Position the tracing paper between the layers and then move the markings. Machine-stitch 1/4-inch seams along the scalloped edge. Carefully clip the curves, then press and turn on the scallops and tabs. Give the panel a final press. Attach curtain rings, and mount into the pole.