No-Sew Kitchen Valance

And now, for my first blog tutorial...

One — of several — projects that I've had all the materials for, but have been putting off for weeks and weeks now (out of fear that I'd mess it up) is this no-sew valance for the window above my kitchen sink. (Remember when I showed you the fabric from IKEA in this post?) Well, since I'm pleased with the results, I thought I'd share the steps I took to get 'er done.

Ryan installed this inexpensive curtain rod for me a week or so ago. I got it at Wal-Mart for like 10 bucks or something ridiculous. Nice, eh? (It kinda looks like a tension rod in this photo, but actually, it's not.)

So, here's what my kitchen window has looked like for that past couple weeks. (And minus the curtain rod, for over a year now.) BOOOOORING!

First, I measured out the fabric so that I had an extra inch on the sides and bottom (for a hem) and 3 extra inches on the top (for the pocket to hold the curtain rod). Since I wanted the finished product to be 42 1/2-inches wide x 12-inches high, I measured it out to 44 1/2-in. x 16-in.

I also wanted to make sure that I had a good amount of the green and black part of the design visible in my finished valance, so I measured and drew my pencil lines kind of in the center of the yard of fabric. Here is the finished piece after cutting.

Now's a good time to mention the supplies I used for this project. They include:

• 1 yard of fabric
• Fabric tape measure
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Straight-edge object (I used a box from another curtain rod)
• Pins
• Iron
• Heat 'n Bond hem tape (this is the "no sew" part of the project)

Next, I started folding over and pinning the edges for the hems. Again, I wanted the sides and bottom to have 1-inch hems and the top to have a 3-inch hem/pocket. I stared with the long edges (the top and bottom), for no particular reason.

Once pinned, I flipped the whole thing over to re-measure and make sure I ended up with a 12-inch height. It was spot-on here...

But in the center and on the other side, I was off by nearly a half-inch. So, I had to adjust my pins accordingly. Since my cuts weren't very precise, if I had skipped this step my finished valance would have been a little lopsided.

Next, I ironed down my hems to create nice creases.

Then, I cut the Heat 'n Bond strip for the top hem. I only did half of the length of the valance at a time so I could be more accurate with the placement.

I just tucked the no-sew strip right under the edge of the top hem (leaving the remainder of the 3-inches open to create a pocket for the curtain rod), and ironed it down, according to the package directions.

I did the same thing for the bottom hem...

...and then flipped it over and ironed the other side — just for good measure, and because the Heat 'n Bond package recommended that.

This next picture could be titled, "Oops!" since I realized when I folded over the short sides that I would be sealing my curtain rod pocket closed. EEEEK!

But, I figured out a way around that by pulling up the edges of the long hems (on all four corners) and making some strategic folds to get everything to lay right.

And it ended up looking pretty nice — probably a lot nicer than it would have if I'd have done the short sides first, actually. Who knew??

Then, of course, I did the same steps with the Heat 'n Bond on the short sides. And finally, one last measure to make sure I ended up with the 42 1/2-inch width I was hoping for. Success!

One last look on the ironing board before loading it onto the curtain rod...

...and then breathing a sigh of relief that the curtain rod fits in the pocket. Whew!

And here's the final shot again...

...with a "before" and "after" view. So much better, don't you think? The plain, boring window just needed a punch of color and this fabric fits so well with the color scheme in the rest of the kitchen and living room.

Now I need to work up the courage to make three more just like it for this bay window by the dining table. The tough thing here is going to be getting all three panels to be the exact same height. Maybe I'll just sit on it for another several weeks....!