Café curtains are window treatments made of soft, light and airy fabric. They hang half the length of your window installed on a café curtain rod effectively leaving the top half of the window open. Café curtains are mainly used in the kitchen window and sometimes in the bathroom window too. The half covered window offers some privacy and allows in a modest amount of sunlight.
To make your own café curtains start by choosing the fabric. Café curtain require a fabric that is lightweight, airy and light colored. This allows for minimal light filtering. Cotton blends make excellent café curtains. Sheer café curtains also have the same desired effect. Choose a fabric that suits your kitchen decorating theme. For an extremely simple kitchen café curtain consider using pillow cases or kitchen napkins as your café curtains. Simple string up a wire across the window and hang the pillow cases or napkins using cloth pegs from the wire. Decorative café curtain rods, tension rods, wire or string can be used to hang this type of curtain, since the material is lightweight.
After you have chosen your fabric and curtain rod it is time to start the actual sewing of the curtain. Start by marking the intended location where you will hang the curtain rod. This is normally half way down the length of the window. To determine the length of the required fabric, measure from this marked location down to the window sill. Add approximately 7 ½ inches to your fabric length (5 inches for the bottom hem and 2 ½ for the casing). For the width of your café curtain measure from window side to window side and add about 2 inches for the side hems. You will need two panels so cut two pieces of fabric using the same measurement. After you take your measurements it is time to purchase your fabric. Remember to purchase preshrunk fabric (or you can preshrink it yourself), and fabric that matches your style and suits your purpose. Cut the fabric to the pre-measured pieces. Next hem all the fabrics and make the casings for the curtain rods. Your simple café curtains are completed. You can finish off the bottom of the curtains with a strip of lace. Instead of sewing a casing for the rod consider using tab tops for your Café curtains. Consider using a valance that matches your café curtains to finish off the window treatment. It can be a fancy curved valance or a straight bottom valance to complement your bottom tier. The Valance can also be as simple as a scarf hung over the overhead curtain rod. Visit you local sewing/fabric store to find a café curtains pattern for a more complicated curtain design. Similarly you can find a variety of patterns on line that will give you ideas and help with cutting your fabric.
If you don’t want to do too much sewing consider recycling some of your old curtains. Cut them to length to suit your café window treatment. You will save sewing the hem or sewing the casing. You can also purchase ready made café style curtains. Some designers make kitchen design accessory kits which include café style curtains, kitchen towels and kitchen oven mitts. You can start with Martha Stewart café curtains and purchase the rest of the collection.