YamDankee: Lined curtains for a sailboat: A pattern, of sorts

Among the other upgrades to L'Heretique while she was on the hard for the winter, we had her tricked out with new cushions.

The old cushions

Fetching though the 1975 tweed plaid was, the foam was shot. It was long past time.

And of course the old curtains (navy) didn't match the new upholstery (moss green), which is how I got sucked into a sailboat project.

(Himself spent three years nagging me to make the cushions, so I consider myself lucky for getting off relatively lightly here. And the new upholstery doesn't match the laminate on the table, so there's another project for him. Ha.)

His projects

Hers projects

Anyhoo, to the curtains.

Our Sabre 28 has two long windows in the main cabin, each requiring two large panels (roughly 13 1/2" high and 33" wide), and four small windows in the head and v-berth, needing eight small panels (roughly 11" high and 12" wide).

To the finished size add margins for the hem: 2" for the sides (1" each side), 1 1/4" for the bottom hem and a bit more for the top pocket seam - 1 3/4" for the smaller panels and 2 1/2" for the larger.

So we needed four panels cut to 17 1/4" high and 35" wide, and eight panels 15" high by 14" wide. Three yards plus a fat quarter (which was all the local quilt shop had) and some ingenuity (one of the small panels is pieced together) of fabric was just sufficient.

Newspaper templates are helpful.

As is a drywall T-square for measuring and marking.

It works. Shut up.

Now, cut a panel of muslin to correspond to each curtain panel - except make the muslin about 2" shorter and 1" narrower than your curtain panel measurements.

For each panel, pin the muslin to the curtain fabric, right sides together. This will be the bottom of the curtain.

If your fabric has a directional print, this is where you want to confirm what's top and what's bottom. Ripping out stitches sucks.

.

Stitch a 1/4" seam.

With the wrong side facing up, press the seam toward the curtain fabric...

... then bring the muslin to the top of the curtain panel, folding up 1 1/4" of the curtain fabric.

Press the 1 1/4" fold.

This will be the bottom hem of the panel.

Now fold each side edge in a quarter of an inch, press...

...fold over 3/4", press again, and pin.

(You will notice up there at the beginning when I gave the finished measurements I said "roughly." In case anyone is doing math here and about to post a comment pointing out a mistake or three.)