Nursery Window valance

Because I am making this valance from scratch, I took a piece of paper and make myself a plan, like I usually do.

My daughter and I first measured the nursery window, which is 63 inches from the outsides of the window casings. I figured that a person probably wanted the valance at least 50% bigger than that, if not more...

 We thought we would like a valance about 12 inches wide.  We had planned to use a 9 inch wide strip of the yellow Newton's fabric, with a 3 inch bottom border out of the turquoise star fabric.  The tabs to hang the valance on the curtain rod was going to be the turquoise print fabric. (All 3 of these fabrics are in the twin babies' new crib quilts. :)

 I cut the yellow Newton's fabric 9 1/2 inches wide. Each strip was only 41 inches long so I figured I would sew 3 strips together end to end for approximately 120" valance.   Then I cut 3 1/4 inch strips of the star fabric and sewed 3 of those strips together next. Then I sewed that on the bottom of the yellow fabric. 

Add caption

After that I had to make a seam all the way around the outside. I ironed a scant 1/4  seam  and then folded it again about another 1/4 inch, then ironed and pinned that. Next I started sewing it on the machine. At some point, I realized that because of losing so much fabric to the seam allowance, it was going to be a lot narrower than we had planned.  I decided to put a 3 inch strip of fabric at the top as well and then sew the curtain rod tabs onto that. 

Now the tabs:  I wasn't sure how many I would need and how best to make them. I decided that 3 inch tabs would be too big; 2 inches wide was probably better. I cut fabric pieces  4 1/2 inches by 7 inches from the turquoise print.  Then I folded them in half with wrong sides together and sewed a scant 1/4 seam around them, leaving one end open to turn them right side out.   

My math geneous husband helped me to calculate how much distance to leave between the tabs so that they would fit well in the window space, but not be too crowded, and not be took far apart that the valance would bag either... We figured 16 tabs would work with a 120" valance for 63" window. 

Sewing and turning these piddely little tabs right side out is not much fun... :(    Now I  also have to figure out how far down from the top to sew them on. Should I finish the bottom seam on each one, or just hide it behind the good seam when I fold them over and sew them on?....

Hmmmm......