Sew Sweet Simplicity Panel Curtains

Last week, when I completed my Sew Sweet Simplicity BOM blocks and made them into kitchen curtains, I said I would post pictures of the curtains as soon as a non-snowy and sunny day came along.  Well, there are still some small hills of snow around, but the sun is bright and the sky is blue – so, here are the curtains.   The top picture shows the bay window area and this is the panel over the sink.

I tried several approaches to making the blocks into curtains and decided to use a simple, streamlined method of using the blocks with sashing and borders to make panels which are very much like wall hangings with a sleeve on the back rather than regular curtain casings.  I wanted the panels to hang similar to a blind without any gathers.

This project worked out well for me and at a distance and in the right light, the panels look almost like stained glass windows.

New Curtains for Christmas

Last summer, I took down the venetian blinds in the kitchen to give it a more open, airy look and repurposed some old lace panels to make curtains.

When fall came, I didn’t want to put the blinds up again but wanted a little more covering for the windows.  I found some wonderful reproduction feedsack fabric while in Ohio Amish Country and made some curtains that looked great with the autumn, Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations.

I really liked the curtains but I thought they might clash with all the bright reds and greens that go up at Christmas time, so once I again I made a set of curtains using white and red gingham.  They were the first things to go up in the kitchen before I began my holiday decorating.

They’re so bright and cheerful that they might be up until Valentine’s Day and into spring.

Recycling Old Lace Curtains

When we moved into this house 11 years ago, the previous owners had left behind three lace panel curtains.  They were too pretty to get rid of but I really had no use for them and they have been hanging in a closet since 2001.  Yesterday, I finally decided to do something with the panels and made new curtains for my kitchen windows.  I needed bottom panels and valance for the window over my sink and three valances for the bay window area.

I was able to make use of the pretty bottom edging on the panels for the window over the sink ….

…and cut all the valances sideways to be able to use the pretty side edging for the bottoms.

I took down venetian blinds to make the kitchen brighter and more open.  Although I’ll be replacing the lace curtains with heavier ones in the fall, I don’t think the blinds are ever going back up.