The way to Make a Bustle Swag Valance

The way to Make a Bustle Swag Valance

The way to Make a Bustle Swag Valance

The bustle, the rounded peplum or cushioning in the rear of a woman’s skirt which created an ornate fabric curtain, is an historic costume artifact — except when it adorns your windows. A bustle swag requires the comfortable form and adapts it to a drapery treatment as a little swag, or a series of swags, which covers opened or shut draperies, typically suspended on loops in a curtain rod. It is possible to make bustle swags to match your drapes — try your hand in personal bustle swags first to have the hang of it.

Lay your facing fabric and lining right sides with a flat surface — or only lay the single layer of unlined fabric to your swag. Drape a piece of curtain chain on the fabric at the width and thickness you want for your finished swag and pin it in place.

Measure the distance from pin to pin — that is the eventual breadth of the finished swag. Mark the surface of the fabric in the pin points. Assess the thickness of the chain drape during its center, multiply by 2.3, and create another mark this distance from the surface of the fabric. Establish two more pins in the enlarged depth markers, twice as far apart from the top two pins. The four pins will form a trapezoid twice as wide in the bottom since the top.

Insert 3/4 inch all the way round the trapezoid and cut it out. Stitch a seam around the whole contour, leaving a small opening in the top so that you may turn the lined fabric right-side-out. Trim the extra seam fabric, turn, hand-stitch the opening shut and press flat.

Mark pleat positions across the sides of the trapezoid, each an even distance from others. The size of the pleats is set by the size of the swag and the fabric. Heavy fabric will need broader pleats. But do not make them overly skinny — try for 3 to 5 inches or more per pleat so that they drape gracefully.

Fold the pleats upward, starting at the top and matching the marks so they’re all even. Pin the folded swag and analyze it to be sure the draped folds are even, and it looks right to you. Look closely at the bottom and top folds — the very best should not be narrower than others, and the bottom should not be wider or flatter. When you’re pleased with the look, stitch the folds in place at the leading ends of the swag.

Trim the excess fabric in the gathered folds at the peak of the swag. Then fold the raw edge on every side under press and 2 it before stitching in place to get a narrow finished edge.

Use a grommet tool to punch a metallic grommet into the upper corner of every side of the swag or binder a brass ring to every one of the top edges. Hang the bustle swag in the drapery rod over a fixed ornamental side curtain that frames a curtained window.

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