Lined tab top curtain tutorial.

These curtains are for my mother in law and are my favorite kind, easy to sew and a nice clean simple look. They are lined to block a bit more light and keep them looking nice from the outside too.

Ingredients:

Body of curtain - A panel of fabric either whole or pieced (mine is pieced) the size you want the curtain to be plus 2" in length and 2.5" in width

Lining - piece of fabric of a similar weight to your curtain and 2" shorter and 3" narrower than the curtain piece.

Tabs - I usually space mine every 6-9" so determine how many tabs you need. For each tab you will need a piece of fabric 3.5" x 8 or 9"

First we will get the tabs ready. You can either hem each tab individually or hem one long strip 3.5" wide and cut it into individual straps, which is what I did.

First fold the edges in by 1/4" and press, the fold over 1/2" and press. For some reason I found this very soothing and satisfying.

Now top stitch the hem trying to catch close to the edge of the fold. You can use a fairly large stitch for this because there is very little strain on this seam.

If you did the tabs in one long strip cut the strip into individual tabs of around 8-9" if you did them individually then you are done.

Now we will hem the bottom and sides of the curtain and lining in a similar manner. First press a 1/4" fold on all three sides, then press a 1" fold on all three sides. When you unfold the fabric it should look like this at the corners:

Fold the corner in and press like so:

re-fold and press the 1/4" and 1" seams and it should look like this:

Now you can either top stitch, hand sew or you the fancy hemming stitch on your machine. Great hemming tips at Hoppo Bumpo. I used the fancy hem stitch on my sewing machine which looks something like this _ _ _^_ _ _^_ _ _

This shows on the back:

And the front looks like this:

But feel free to use just a plain straight stitch.

Also fold and press the top edge at 1/4"

Repeat for your lining.

Once you have your lining and curtain hemmed you can put it all together. Place your curtain down face up. Line up your tabs along the top edge, folded in half, upside down:

Center your lining carefully on top of the a curtain, lining it up with the top edge. Pin and sew all three layers together with a 1/2" seam.

Turn and press. Top stitch along the top edge about 3/8" down, this will finish off the edge of the curtain that goes a couple inches past the lining and tabs on each side. Done!