As I designed my vintage hanky curtains, I had the idea of highlighting the beautiful crochet-edged handkerchiefs as the 'headings' above the curtain rods. This is the 2nd of a 2-part Blogging endeavor to share the how-to's for my curtains. Part I is HERE.
Since I did one panel, and then the other one later after it 'worked', I took photos and made notes as I worked. Hoping you might be inspired to do something like this, my directions for how I did this can be found below.
1. Design the headings by varying the colors of hankies used. I pressed them in half, off-setting the fold so that both of the crocheted edges showed. The photo below shows all of the folds as created to create the casing once stitched into place.
2. Stitch the first fold to the WRONG side of the top edge in a 1/4" seam, laying the highest lace edge against the curtain. Butt each hanky edges along the width of the curtain. This placement is shown in the photo below. That 1/4" stitching will be done along what you see below as the edge with the pins. You can see that stitching in the photo above.
For the hankies at the edges, cut a bit wider as seen below. Then, open and press this extra in towards the middle for a folded, flush finish with the end of the curtain.
3. Press the hanky heading UP, away firmly from the curtain. Again, this can be seen in the photo with Step 1.
4. Stitch through both layers of the hankies 1.5" from the stitching of Step 1. Doing this makes the hankies 'handle as one' for the following steps, and marks the next fold. Note: I was designing for a 1" wide curtain rod.
5. Press the hankies down to the outside along this stitched line as shown below. The upper edge of the sewing gauge shows both this stitched line, and pressing along it as a guide. I really, really love the 5-in-1 Sewing Gauge by Nancy Zieman, as the slider STAYS in place!
6. Repeat Step 4 measuring up another 1.5". Then, press the hanky backsides together. This is the uppermost fold shown in the picture above.
7. Next, pull this pressed fold downward, placing it right over the stitching from Step 2. It should look like this:
8. From the backside, stitch the uppermost edge of the casing at the top line of stitching as seen below:
That's it! Feeding the rod in through the middle of the casing is a bit of a challenge: I found that covering the end of the rod with a bandaid helped. I took the rod apart, and used one of the middle, straight ends for inserting, instead of the bent 'return' ends of the rod.
I love this upper heading 'finish' to my Hanky Curtains! If you missed the initial post on my curtains, be sure to find it HERE for directions on the rest of the curtain construction how-to's.