How To Make a Quilted Curtain

In my tiny cottage there's no room to fit a door on the kitchen - there are stairs and shelves and kitchen units in the way on both sides of the door.

There is a curtain between the two rooms but it doesn't do a good job of keeping the heat in the lounge. We don't have central heating and we only like to keep one room warm because, obviously, it's cheaper that way than having lots of different heaters on in different rooms.

So this winter, my partner gave me the job of creating a padded curtain that would do a better job of keeping the heat in and this is what I came up with.

I've already had quite a bit of experience making layered textiles art and huge wall hangings so I started to think about how I could use those skills to help keep us warm this winter.

For this project I wasn't going for anything glamourous or complex I just needed something that would be quick to make, that would keep us warm.

A piece of wadding that's slightly bigger than your door or window space.

2 lengths of fabric that are bigger than your piece of wadding. I chose a length of fabric that I'd screen printed with tin openers for the kitchen side of my door.

Strong cotton thread.

Binding.

Foam tubes (the type that are used to insulate pipes - you should be able to find these at your local DIY store).

Extra pieces of fabric the width of your wadding and long enough to go around the tubes.

Find a clear space on the floor and lay out one of your pieces of fabric.

Lay the wadding on top.

Lay your second piece of fabric on top of this.

Pin the fabrics all together at regular intervals. Make sure that you keep smoothing out the fabric so you're not pinning wrinkles into place.

I spent time tacking the fabrics together at this point - this means sewing big stitches through all the fabrics so that all the layers are secured. I sewed in a criss-cross pattern.

I started sewing down the lengths with a big running stitch, making sure I only sewed in one direction. I then sewed across the width, only sewing in one direction. This left me with two inch squares.

You're going to pull these stitches out once you've used the sewing machine to sew along those lines.

If you need some more tips, try this book.

If you have a quilting foot for your sewing machine then use that to stop tucks appearing in your quilted fabrics. If you don't have a quilting foot, don't worry - I don't either.

Simply sew along the lines you tacked, making sure that you onbly sew in one direction to avoid weird tucks and stretching.

At this point you're going to want to add an extra piece of fabric on both the top and the bottom of your curtain.

These pieces of fabric need to be big enough for you to slip your tube inside once they're sewn up. Don't forget to add seam allowance.

Sew the fabric onto one side of your curtain so that the curtain the the tube sleeve are right sides together (this will help hide those nasty rough edges at the top and bottom of the curtain).

Don't sew the sleeve on the other side at this point. For now you just want a piece of fabric hanging loose which is extending the top and the bottom of the curtain.

Next you need to get some fabric binding to hide the rough edges down the lengths of your curtain.

Sew the binding into place, making sure it goes down the whole of the curtain and the piece of fabric that will be your tube sleeve.

Now all that's left to do is finish those tube sleeves.

Fold the fabric for the sleeves over and pin them into place onto the back of your curtain - you should be sewing the fabric so that all the messy edges of the fabric are hidden behind the sleeve.

Slip the tubes into place and you're done.

You can slip your curtain through a curtain rail and the tube will create a seal at the top to stop air coming through and the weight and rigidity of the tube at the bottom will hold the curtain straight.