my first attempt at sewing a valance

For the Bearcat's big girl room I wanted something colorful, but not super-girly.  I didn't find anything that I was thrilled about so I took matter's into my own hands and went DIY.

My original inspiration came from my latest bag creation and its leftover fabric scraps, so I went back to the Etsy shop where I purchased the fabric and found a few more fabrics to use.

I ordered all fat quarters, so all my fabric started at 18"x22".

My window measured 82" across.  I knew I wanted a fairly tight fitting valance -- not a lot of droop.  And after arranging and rearranging my fabrics, I decided the curtain would be a patchwork design with nine different fabric squares.  And I'd tie it all onto the curtain rod with coordinating ribbon.

To make my life easy, I cut my fat quarters in half and ended up with a bunch of 18"x11" pieces.  Putting nine of them together (minus 1/2" seam allowances on each side) I'd end up with a valance that was approximately 17"x90".

It worked for me.

I sewed my fabric squares together into one big strip.  And pressed the seams open so it would lay nicely.

Next I ironed on some fusible fleece (cut to size 17"x90") to stiffen the whole thing up.  It was technically two pieces 17"x44ish".  There was just a slight gap, as seen in picture below, where the two panels met.  Again it worked for me, I like to keep things as simple as possible.

I folded over my edges and pinned ribbons into place putting one ribbon (folded in half and approx 36" long) at each patchwork seam in alternating colors.

Then ran the whole thing through the machine.

My final valance was one looooong piece of fabric.

I tied it to the existing {not super fancy} curtain rod and.....VOILA!

Audrey's big girl valance!

And just for fun, linking up with House of Hepworths.