Make a hanging sleeve with room for the rod

On our 7/11/23 shop video, Julianne explained her method for creating a hanging sleeve with room to accomodate a drapery rod. Here are her directions for future reference.

Step 1

Cut your sleeve at 9" by the width of your finished quilt.

Step 2

Press in the short edges 1/4" and then 1/4" again and secure the fold with a scant 1/4" stitching line using matching thread (I used white thread so you could see it here.) Backstitch at the beginning and the end to secure.

Step 3

Fold the sleeve longways with the wrong sides together and press to create a fold line. 

Sew a long basting stitch using an off-color thread (I used pink) 1/4" in from the folded edge. *Don't backstitch!*

Step 4

Press the sleeve right sides together with the new pleat inside, matching long raw edges. Stitch the raw edges together with a 1/4" stitch, backstitching on both ends.

Press this newly sewn seam open. 

Turn the sleeve right side out and press the sleeve once more with the seam centered along the back and the fold with the basting stitch centered along the front of the sleeve.

Step 5

Using matching thread, hand stitch the sleeve to the quilt backing 1/2" from the top edge of the quilt with the pleated part out. (I used yellow thread to hand-stitch the sleeve to the quilt back so that you could see it.) Hand stitch the bottom edge of the hanging sleeve to the quilt back.

Optionally: Stitch down the sides of the back half of the sleeve where it meets the quilt backing. This helps to ensure that the rod goes through the sleeve you have made and not between the sleeve and the quilt back. This is especially important if you aren't the one hanging the quilt, for example, at a quilt show.

Remove the off-color basting stitches to release the fullness in the front of the quilt sleeve.

To watch this in video form, click here.