dining room valances
hi, i'm jennifer from jennifer decorate today i'm going to show you how to make your own kitchen curtains. we're in my kitchen and my window needs some curtains, so even if you have never seen before i'm going to show you how to make what's called box pleat curtains they're easy they don't take a lot of fabric and by the time we're done with this tutorial you're going to be so good at it. you might start your own drapery business, so let's get started. the first thing you need to do is get your measurements box pleat curtains are hung on a 1 by 2 board so here i'm going to measure from the outside of the casings to the outside and get my perfect measurement. now we're ready to figure out our pattern for our curtain this box pleat is for a single window
and i measured mine, and it's 40 inches and then i decided how far down i wanted it to come and i only wanted mine to come down 13 inches because i really didn't want to hide a lot of view in the backyard so now in order to make the pleat in the middle we need to add an extra 8 inches, and it's where you take the fabric and you fold it over like that and that's what's going to make your pleat. over here we need to add an inch and a half
your curtain today is going to be mounted on a 1 by 2 board and the reason you need an inch and a half is you need an inch to go around the board and you need that 1/2 an inch for your seam allowance so i need 40 plus 8 plus 1 and 1/2 and plus 1 and 1/2 that gives me 51 inches, so i know i need 51 inches across 13 is my finished length and i know i'm going to have a seam allowance down a half of an inch and you're going to have one up here a half an inch it's not going to be sewn but you're going to put your fabric over on the board and staple it across so you need thirteen
plus one, so i need fourteen. drapery fabric is 54 inches standard so i know i've got to come across to 51 and i need to go down to 14 and make my cut. what's so great about this curtain is for a yard or less, you're gonna have a beautiful curtain! lay your lining on the floor right side up and then lay your drapery fabric right side down pin it and
cut out your lining just a little bigger than your drapery fabric. you just sew down one side across the bottom and up the other side with a 1/2 inch seam leaving the top open i want you to go about 1/4 of an inch from your seam allowance. go ahead and trim the top where the drapery lining overlaps some of the drapery fabric and then it's time to iron now hopefully you've got your fabric turned and pressed beautifully and you're ready to put your curtain on a board which i think is the fun part. okay, i have my board cut 40 inches because that's what i needed now if you don't have a way to cut a board no big deal you go to lowe's and home depot
grab the 1x2 tell them the measurements you need and they'll cut it for you at no charge love them, okay first thing i did i covered my board with the drapery lining it's just a professional custom way to do it, so now on the side where i stapled my drapery lining to the board i want to mark, i'm going to mark the exact middle and then i took a tape measure and measure a half an inch and marked it all the way around so that when i begin to staple my curtain to the board it's going to keep it straight on that board makes it really really easy.
now it's time to get your drapery curtain ready to put on the board and you're going to make your pleat and this is really easy. you're going to take your tape measure, measure your curtain and find the exact middle and put a pin in it and then remember how we kept 8 inches, so we could make that pleat? okay, you measure, hold on, let me pull you in a little closer here, and show you how to do this, okay? so you've got your fabric marked in the middle with a pin and then you measure out 4 inches on this side and 4 inches on that side and you take and you're to start that pleat right where that pin is
come down to the bottom pull on it. make sure it's straight, bring it over, pin it back in place. take the next spot, same thing. pull it over, look at the bottom and make sure that those are even it's really important and look at that! you've got a pleat and you are ready to put this curtain on board! have your board facing where you've marked all the half-inch measurements all the way around your board. i just use a hand held stapler- works for me. i keep a hammer
close by in-case this staple doesn't go in. all right, the middle of your pleat is the middle of your curtain and you've marked your board, so you put it on there you're going to make your first staple so easy and then you see my lines. you're just going to follow don't pull too much to make the pleat come undone start there keep it kind of pulled a little tight
i'll show you how to do the edges in a minute okay, now you going to do, do this opposite side. here's how you do the ends, see i got it marked on the board the half-inch. kind of pull it around staple it in place. and it's kind of like wrapping a present to me see where that folds over there you go okay, let's go hang it. so this is how you're going to hang your board you're going to hang it with what's called an l-shaped bracket
you can find these in the hardware store on the bracket isle, really easy. so it works one screw goes into your board and then the other screw goes into either your wall or your woodwork, and that's how you mount your curtain. now, you want to mount these first before you put your curtain up. it's a lot easier. i learned that the hard way. you simply screw one screw into your board and the other will go into your wall or the woodwork and that's how that's going to work. just like that.
well, i hope i didn't make it too complicated thank you for watching this tutorial be sure to stop by my blog, jenniferdecorates.com and be sure to subscribe to this channel because i hope to add a ton more tutorials. have a great day. thank you!