If you read the previous post about sewing sheer drapes, you’ll know we’re making floor-length window coverings for my daughter’s Craftsman-style house. The sheers are completed and hung – yeah! Now we’re ready to make lined drapes. Sounds a challenge or at least expensive? Not really.
So far, we mounted the two rods that nearly reach the 10-foot ceiling (read here for a refresher), and decided on the “stack back.” (That’s how much the drapes would hide the walls beside the window when they are pulled open.) We were still debating how to finish the top – maybe a swag, but we knew we would hang something to cover the rods. With fabric and supplies on hand, we got ready to sew. Here’s our easy step-by-step to make lined drapes, which we would attach with rings.
1. MEASURE first – from rod to floor – to make lined drapes.
We would hang these drapes on the second rod, a rod in front of the sheers. We needed to make sure the drapes were definitely as long or even a tad longer than the sheers but not touching the floor. (Being any shorter would look awful.) This means the top to bottom measurement will be about the same as it was for the sheers. But it was NOT EXACTLY the same. This is why measuring accurately is important when you make lined drapes to go with sheers.
2. PREPARE fabric- straighten grain, match pattern repeat BEFORE cutting.
Next, we made sure the grain of our fabric is straight so it won’t ripple or hang askew. Learn how to straighten fabric grain at this quick tutorial. While our fabric was a solid color, your fabric to make lined drapes may have a pattern repeat, stripe or one-way design. So make sure your panels will visually match when they are hang. Otherwise the drapes will look odd – a near miss. Do the matching BEFORE you cut!
3. CUT the fabric – for one drape panel only.
We would be using two widths of fabric – each about 54″ wide – which we will sew together, then line and pleat – to make lined drapes for each side of the big picture window. This means two pieces of grey and two pieces of lining per side – each about 54″ by almost 10 feet. This is a lot of fabric and weight! We will cut and finish one drape at a time. So we measure and cut just two widths of the grey fabric, adding 8” for the bottom hem and 6” for the top finish or an overall 14″ to our rod-to-floor measurement.
4. SEW the vertical seam – PRESS, the HEM fabric.
With right sides together, we sewed the two grey pieces together to make one large panel. We pressed the seam open. We prepared the 4″ hem, same as the sheer drapes: press a fold 8″ up for your double hem, open it, and then fold the raw edge in so it touches the pressed fold. Pin in place. Use the machine’s blind hem stitch. You can hem by hand if you prefer.
Seems like a waste to use double the fabric for hemming? The reason to not skimp on fabric here is to get a professional look of softly hanging pleats, and the weight of the extra fabric helps do that. Note: if your window is narrow, you may not need to use two panels or sew a vertical seam. Rule of thumb for a full drapery look: the fabric panel width equals about 2 times the width of the window and the wall (stack back) it will cover.
5. CUT LINING fabric – sew a vertical seam, press and hem.
To make the lining panel, we simply repeat Steps 3 and 4. We used a standard white lining fabric -the Roc-lon brand. Note that our lining panel will be slightly narrower and also shorter in length, because we don’t want the lining to show at all. Our lining measurement to cut will be the rod-to-floor length, and adding another 5” for the hem and 1” for the top finish. This means we’ll sew a hem just 2½” deep (5″ folded over instead of the 8″ we used for the grey). This gives a finished length about 1½” shorter than the finished grey drape. Again, we hemmed with the machine’s blind hem stitch, but you can also do this by hand.
6. MATCH and ATTACH – hemmed lining to hemmed drape, WRONG sides together.
Next we attached the hemmed grey panel to the hemmed lining. Matching WRONG sides together, we carefully laid the lining panel on top of the grey drape, making sure there are no wrinkles or fabric ripples. We positioned the lining hem to keep it 1½” shorter than the bottom of the grey hem. The top lining edge will be roughly 3” shorter than the grey top.
The lining panel measurement from left-edge-to-right-edge will also be slightly less than the grey fabric – as much as 2″ on each side. But this depends on how wide your lining fabric comes (Ours was about 50″).
Since you will next finish the left and right edges by folding over each side, having a shorter lining measurement reduces the bulk for you. Pin edge in place, and you’re ready to blind hem stitch.
7. SEW – finish lining and drape as one unit.
Now we sew the left sides together by folding over about 2″ of the panel. Then we did the same for the right side. You could sew this step by hand if you think the finished hem stitch will show too much. For our fabric, the blind hem stitch was not noticeable and made the job go soooo much faster.
We did sew by hand to miter the bottom corners, which reduces the bulk. We also added a drapery weight (looks like a quarter-size washer) in each corner. You can do this now or add the weight right before hanging.
8. FINISH – the drape top.
Now to finish the top to make a lined drape – We used an inverted box pleat design, which is similar to the sheer we already pleated. The difference is the inverted pleat style puts the actual pleat on the wrong side (toward the wall) rather than the front side of the drape.
Because our grey fabric is a bit stretchy, we added a 4″ strip of interfacing (regular weight) to reinforce the top of the grey fabric. To make a 3″ casing, we fold over the top 6″ of the drapery fabric and press, just like we did for the double hem. Then we open the piece and bring the raw edge in to meet the pressed fold. Pin in place. Your open edge should meet the drapery lining’s raw edge. So when this edge is finished, the raw edge at the top of the lining will be covered by the fold just made. Note that we do not sew (left to right) across the drapery panel to secure a casing. (This is almost the same process we used for the sheers.)
9. MEASURE, PIN, ADJUST PLEATS – for visual appeal.
Next we measured and pinned each pleat in place. Our pleats measured roughly 4″ apart. We did some adjusting as we wanted to end with a pleat on each edge of the panel and so it looks great and hangs properly.
This is where you do a bit of math to get the desired width and make sure your pleats are evenly spaced across the entire panel. This could take some time to look right. To make it easier, we made a paper ruler that measured for 4 pleats and the spacing in between them. And then we used this “ruler” to go along the top edge to pin all the pleats in place.
10. ANCHOR EACH PLEAT in place.
Before you do this step, make sure your measurements for overall length of the drape is correct. To do this, have someone hold the panel at the rod/clip level and notice where the drape hits near the floor. If this is not the length you want, adjust it now!
Remember, we did not sew straight across the drapery panel to make a casing. But we will anchor the fold and interfacing by sewing 4″ vertical seams to make each pinned pleat. This will be adequate to hold the folded top in place and allow for softer draping. And, we won’t have an un-attractive line of stitches running the width of each drape top.
Since the rod was previously installed and rings are attached, we’re ready to clip the middle of each pleat to a ring. If you measured accurately, your drape should be the desired length from the floor and your pleats should look evenly spaced across the panel. If not, repeat step 9.
We were all pleased with the look, so we made the matching panel for the other side.
About those parlor windows…
Next, we created the same look for the two skinny windows in the nearby parlor. At this point, we had enough for just one 54″ grey panel approximately the same length we needed. Fortunately, that’s all we wanted. We didn’t want to cover the skinny windows with too much fabric and the drapes would be stationary.
So we cut this fabric in half lengthwise (so about 27″ wide) and repeated steps 5 thru 10 above. While this panel was less full, we did accomplish that airy, flowing look.
Now, to top it off!
Next post: Sew or No-Sew Drapery Swags – 2 Easy Ideas You Can Do
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