Shower curtains and reunions
My sister Janelle (on the right) is coming to visit this weekend to attend her 45th high school reunion.
Out with the old...
...in with the new.
My sister Janelle is coming to stay with me this weekend to attend her 45th high school reunion. She reserved my guest room 6 months ago, so the least I can do is make sure it is in good order before she arrives. Janelle is a perfect hostess. When we visit her in California, she has His and Hers terrycloth robes for us hanging in the bathroom, so when I looked at my guest bathroom and saw the old, sagging, madras Nautica shower curtain, that was perfect for my 14 year old son back when we moved into this house, and is still hanging there 16 years later, I could just hear her voice, "It's FINE, it's FUNCTIONAL, who CARES?" But I also know she wouldn't be caught DEAD with that curtain in her house. It's time for a new shower curtain.
I have actually had the fabric for this new shower curtain for at least a year, because I made a new shower curtain for my daughter's old bathroom a year ago and somehow bought twice as much fabric as I needed. I wanted something sort of whimsical and fun and, frankly, shower curtains you buy at Bed, Bath & Beyond are just so .... polyester. Or, as Janelle would say, so PEDESTRIAN. I knew I wanted to make my own and went to my favorite fabric store, The Second Yard and asked for John. John is an iconic local decorator who used to help my mother pick out fabrics and Momma has been dead since 2007, so suffice it to say that I have known John for a really long time and he is just the best. John once helped me reupholster a chaise and it was just a horrible choice of fabric that wound up looking like a crazy quilt and I had to tell him I simply could not live with it and he took it right back and had it covered in something else and they didn't even charge me the full amount for two upholstery jobs even though it really was my fault for choosing the hideous fabric in the first place. In other words, we have a HISTORY, John and I, so far be it for me to say that he made a mistake in measuring, but the way I remember it, I told him I wanted to make a shower curtain and I asked how much fabric do I need and he just cut it and I paid for it and then I got home and said, Holy Shit I've got a lot of fabric here. Exactly twice the amount of fabric I needed. While it would not normally be my style to use the exact same fabric in two bathrooms in my house, I am thrifty enough to let it go this time. So, if you have never made a shower curtain and want to, here's what you need to know.
How I made it
I have to admit that, in this day and age, it is a bit moronic to have no idea how much fabric you need to make a shower curtain. All you have to do is Google, "how many yards of fabric do I need to make a shower curtain" and you will wind up at a good site like www.sewing.org where they have made this nice pdf that explains it all. If you don't feel like going there, I can tell you that a standard shower curtain is 72" x 72" (or 6' x 6' for those who are math-challenged). How much fabric you get is going to depend on how wide it is and how big the pattern repeat is. The pattern repeat can really bite you in the ass if you're not careful, as you can waste as much as a yard just getting things to line up. And things HAVE to line up or the curtain will look awful. My fabric is 54" wide, so I would need at least two full lengths of fabric to be able to piece it together and have a curtain that is 72" wide. That's part of the reason why I had enough to make a second curtain -- I had a leftover length of fabric that I had only cut about 20" from, and I could use that on the second curtain. But I still don't know why I also had another 3 yards in addition to that. Anyway, you need two 2-yard lengths to make the shower curtain, plus enough for the top and the hem, so 5 or 6 yards of 54" wide fabric is generally the right amount. You can line the curtain if you want and if you do you need 5 yards of that lining. I did not line mine and I think it looks fine. If you don't line the curtain you need to finish the seams nicely and there are two ways to do that. A French seam looks very nice, but can be a little bulky. I once made skirts for my sister Janelle's friend, Blair, many years ago when they were both living in New York City and I was a starving student looking to make a buck as a tailor, I guess. I can't remember how on earth that arrangement came to be, but her friend Blair wanted EVERYTHING I made for her to have French seams, so I got really good at making French seams. Frankly, if you are making a skirt, it is overkill and it is a huge pain in the ass and I know I didn't charge nearly enough, given that I had to French seam everything. But for a shower curtain it is easy enough, so if you want to know how to sew a French seam, here's a good tutorial. Otherwise you can sew the seam and zigzag stitch the edges so it won't ravel. I sewed everything on my shower curtains on the machine - no hand stitching needed - and I like a really wide hem because it makes it hang well, being weighted down by the big hem. The trickiest part is putting in the grommets. For a shower curtain you use really big grommets, which you can buy at the fabric store, and for the really big ones you have to buy the grommet installation tools separately. And you have to have your own hammer - no substitutions. Don't cut corners and try to do it with the heel end of a shoe because you are too lazy to go find the hammer. It will not work. Trust me. The hardest part was cutting the right size holes for the grommets but I figured out a trick which I will share with you now.
You cut the hole for the grommet a tiny bit smaller than the inside diameter of the grommet because the fabric will stretch a little and then you'll have a good tight fit with no raveling.
No doubt you are thinking that's a no-brainer, but I bet you would have done exactly what I did and would have had a bunch of failed attempts stabbing the fabric with an Exacto knife or a kitchen knife or a seam ripper.
When you make your new shower curtain, you will definitely want to get a new liner and maybe even spring for new curtain hangers, if yours are rusty. That way everything will be nice and fresh for when your big sister comes. Believe me, the trouble will be worth it.