Whenever I purchase new curtain panels for a room, I always buy one or two of the panels in a longer length so I have extra fabric . This extra fabric is used to make valances and pillow covers. Last week I made a both with the extra fabric from our bedroom curtains. Even if you’re not skilled at sewing curtains, these are some of the easiest valances you can make.
1. Curtain Panel
Our bedroom curtains rods are mounted for a standard 84-inch curtain panel. I realize now that they would be better hung up higher, but they’ve been this way for the past 20 years and I’ve gotten used to them.
The curtains are the navy Scribble curtain panels from West Elm. The color is now discontinued so I got a few of the panels on clearance at the store and the others on Ebay.
When I purchased them, I purchased two of the panels as 108-inches. After hemming the curtains, this left me with enough fabric to make a valance for our master bathroom.
Lay the 108-inch curtain panel flat and trim across 89 inches from the top. Then hem the bottom of the curtain panel to 84-inches.
2. Valance
You will be left with a 19-inch piece of fabric which you can use to make a valance.
The factory-hemmed bottom edge will be the bottom edge of your valance. All you need to do it add a rod pocket at the top.
To sew the rod pocket, fold the top of the fabric over 3 to 3-1/2 inches to make a 3-inch top hem. Sew two lines straight across. Do not sew the left and right edges or you will not be able to slide the rod through the 2-inch section.
At this point you have a finished valance. It’s a very basic, no-frills style. I could have stopped there, but wanted to add a bit more to it.
I had a strip of fabric left over from the second, long curtain panel I hemmed. I used it to make a pillow cover which I show you at the end of this post.
Since this strip of fabric was from the bottom hem of the curtain panel, it already had one edge sewn. I placed the strip a few inches above the bottom hem of the finished valance and sewed across the top edge.
The end result made it look as if I had added an entire layer to the valance.
3. Pillow Cover
From the second curtain, I recovered a small pillow. To do this, take a strip of fabric a few inches wider the pillow you intend to cover. Fold it over with the wrong side facing out. Sew up the two sides.
Turn the fabric right side out and insert the pillow into the cover. Tuck one side of the fabric under the pillow and fold the other side like a present.
Using a needle and thread, secure the flap in place.
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Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to products I use myself.
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