Autumn Valance with Cutwork Applique Leaves

We made this Fall valance for our rustic-style entry room. It's a quick and easy sewing project that you can do over the weekend, and it looks absolutely gorgeous. We used embroidery designs from the Cutwork Applique Leaf Set, both for the large and small hoops.

The finished size of our valance is about 80" x 16".

Click to enlarge

For the project, we used Osnaburg 100% unbleached cotton and fall-colored striped cotton by Fabric Traditions (www.fabrictraditions.com)

The width of our two windows is 65" inches. We wanted only light ruffles, so we added 16" for seams and ruffles.

Out of Osnaburg fabric, we cut 2 strips 18" wide and 41" long (width of the fabric).
Out of patterned cotton fabric, we cut 2 strips 5 1/2" wide and 41" long.

Take the plain strips and, using a zig-zag stitch, finish one short side on each strip.
Place the strips face to face, aligning the finished short sides. With a straight stitch, sew the finished short sides together with a seam allowance of 1/4". Press the seam open.

Take the patterned cotton strips, place them face to face and stitch them together along one of the short sides. Seam allowance is 1/4". Press the seam open.

Place the cotton strip over the linen strip, face to face. Align one of the long sides. Pin. Sew the strips together with a seam allowance of 1/4".

Using zig-zag, finish the short sides of the cotton strip.
Fold the short sides back 1/4", press and straight stitch in place.

Fold the long unfinished side back 1/4" and press. Fold back again by 2 1/2"-3" and press thoroughly. This will be the sleeve for the curtain rod. However, do not stitch in place at this stage - you will need the extra width to make hooping easier.

Now the valance is ready for embroidery. We used 2 layers of water soluble mesh.

We embroidered the leaves from the Cutwork Applique Leaf Set. You can read about how to make this type of embroidery on the page with Instructions on how to embroider the Cutwork Applique Leaf Set.

Note: While you embroider these cutwork designs, after you cut away the fabric inside the outline, you'll have a nice fabric shape of a leaf. You can save it for other projects. For ideas, see our project Quilted Table Topper with Leaf Applique and Redwork Embroidery.

After we finished all the embroidery, we cut away the excess stabilizer and finished sewing.

First, we top-stitched the folded upper edge of the valance to make the sleeve. Then, we folded back and pressed 1/2" of the lower, unfinished edge of the patterned cotton strip.

Finally, we again folded back the edge of the patterned cotton strip so that the edge covered the seam between both parts. This was pressed and topstitched in place.

Insert a rod through the sleeve and place over the window blinds.

If you like this project, you might also like our Summer Valance.