This is an easy project for anyone with basic sewing skills. Also it's a great way to add a little change to your room.

What is a cafe curtain? Basically it is a panel and it is super easy! It can be a full panel covering the total window or a half panel, covering the lower half of the window. Just imagine a cafe in Paris and sitting at a table you can peer over the curtain to watch outside or put your head down and read a book without everyone watching you. A single panel is good for small windows. You can push it open by sliding it slightly or using a complementary tieback.

We have a door in our bedroom that goes out to the back yard. The door has a small window so we didn't want anything fancy for covering it up. We also wanted it to match the shade we got for our windows, a warm latte color. A cafe curtain was the perfect solution.

Materials:

1. Enough fabric for the window length and width, see how to add allowance below.

2. Type of fabric: I prefer quilting weight fabrics, 100% cotton

3. Needle size: 9 or 11

4. Thread: cotton or cotton poly

Instructions:

1. Measure your window and add 2" to the height and width

2. Fold over 3/8" seam allowance on all 4 sides, steam.

the tool in this picture is called a sewing gauge, they are great for measuring seam allowances

3. On the bottom and sides fold in another 3/8", steam and sew an edge stitch on the inside fold.

4. Be sure to steam after sewing!

5. For the top loop I over locked my raw edge since I have a serger. But don't worry, if you don't have a serger just fold over once and steam as in step 2.

At the corners fold in a diagonal then pin down and steam. Normally I don't put pins like this, but the seam allowance is so tiny I do in this case.

6. Fold over 2", pin and steam

7. I find it helpful to pin the end openings so they don't shift when you are sewing the edge stitch on the fold. See below.

8. Finished! And iron with steam! And hang!

the fabric I used is 100% cotton called Quilter's Linen, it has a linen look, purchased at Purl Soho. Since this is a door with no window frame, my husband found curtain rods that are magnetic at Home Depot! I believe Target also carries them.

Enjoy!

Tracey Toole

http://www.etsy.com/shop/traceytoole