Remaking Tab Top Panels

Pinterest inspiration photo

     My client had some embroidered tab top panels that she loved but they no longer worked as panels.  She saw a picture on Pinterest of a treatment she liked and wondered if I could repurpose her panels.

Panels, fresh from the cleaners

     The panel has a border of flowers along the bottom and then scattered flowers on the rest of it.  It was decided to use the border for the the part of the treatment.

Cutting the width of the top part

     The client told me the desired finished length and width of the treatment.  I then chose to make the top part about 1/3 of the finished length.  I did not want the embroidery to be in the rod pocket at the top so when I was figuring out where to cut, I made sure to add the rod pocket allowance and seam allowance above the top of the embroidery border.

     I then pressed up a double 2" hem and used Steam-A-Seam2 to fuse it in place.  I didn't want to stitch through the embroidery when doing the hem.

Finished top of the treatment

     For the width I centered to embroidery border and cut off the sides as needed and did a double 1/4" hem on the sides as the original panel had.  I did stitch this with matching thread and you can barely see it.

Ribbon in place

     For the bottom portion, I used the remainder of the panel, cutting it to the proper width and hemming the sides.  I stitched the ribbon in place on the front and back of the bottom portion.

Layered to stitch together

     Then I stitched the top part in place with the right side of the top to the wrong side of the bottom.  Then I flipped it to the right side and sewed the rod pocket, making sure I kept the ribbons straight.

Rod pocket at the top

     Then I prepped the bottom to make another rod pocket that would hold a piece of tubing to give the treatment structure.  I pressed 1/4" to the right side and then folded up 1-3/4" for the pocket and stitched it in place.

Pressed up 1/4"

Measuring for the bottom rod pocket

     I then inserted the tube into the bottom rod pocket.  Now it was time to set the finished length.  These are going to be stationary so I needed to get them all the same.

Prepping to start rolling up the bottom

     Using painter's tape, I taped the top of the treatment to my cutting table.  I then started rolling up the bottom part until it was the desired length.

Setting the finished length

     I then cut the ribbon to the desired length and tied a pretty bow to keep it all in place.

Finished treatment

     I think they turned out very much like the inspiration piece.  I hope she sends me a photo soon to show how they look on her windows.  Below is the photo from my client.