I love simple projects and wanted to share this DIY window treatment with you. I made a quick no sew valance from a piece of left over material we had from our Deco Wrap cornice samples. It was one yard of 54″ wide home decorators fabric and the selvedge ends were trimmed off. To figure out how much fabric you need, determine the window width you need to cover and add 12″. My width was 42″ and my fabric width was 54″. The one yard piece at 36″ gave me a finished drop of 16″. This is because it is folded in half and you loose some length in the seams.
Fold the fabric in half to 18″ with the right sides inward. Since this is a no sew project, to adhere the edges I used Kraftex heavy duty double-sided tape. Fabric glue or fusible webbing also works just as well.
Lay the tape along one side and the long edge, but leave about a 1″ open at the folded end. This is where you will insert your rod. You leave the opposite end open to pull the fabric through so it’s right side out.
After you adhere the two the edges, pull the fabric through the opening so the right sides are out. Then fold the raw edges under one inch and seal the last side closed. Make sure the corners are pulled through and square. Iron the fabric edges so they are neat and flat.
Next, feed the rod through the opening. I used a tension rod but a straight drapery pole can work too.
Center the rod inside the fabric so the same amount of excess material hangs over on both ends. It should extend approximately 5″ past the ends of the rod.
To make the accent pleat, adhere the extra fabric to the rod fabric. Fan-fold half the amount back on itself and adhere the pleat. You can play around with the proportions to see what looks best. If you have a longer overhang of fabric, the pleat can be deeper or wider, or you can have more folds. It is something to play around with depending upon the look you want to achieve.
I liked the result, but the valance looked a little plain. I decided to add navy ribbon trim across the bottom edge. Since my tape was wider than the trim, I used fabric glue to adhere it. I recommend Fabri-Tac fabric glue. It definitely works the best.
Voila, a beautiful window treatment in less than 20 minutes! Do you have a window that needs an updating? Give it a try. Happy decorating!