You know I was having a hard time finding the right accent colors to match my new lovely duvet. Luckily, while I was at Joann’s I found a bolt that I loved on the red clearance rack which resembled my above inspiration photo. After buying 5 ½ yards, my total came to 16.50! I was shocked. I didn’t realize it was cheaper then the red tag price. Cha ching! It was a no brainer for me.
My next step was to decide on what style I wanted...
With grommets, easy to open and close. I ruled this out due to my lack of experience with them.
Curtain rings may be a quick fix. It was my option B.
Tab tops give a more relaxed look.
I choose the pocket pole style simply because it was the easiest for me!
If you know me, you know that when I get an idea I run with it fast. Sometimes too fast. I wasted no time looking up how to sew your own curtains. With some sewing experience I just decided I was going to do it. Here’s my process. Good or bad. Professional or unprofessional. So be it!
Wash and dry fabric before measuring and sewing. (Usually I don’t do this because I don’t like waiting but I was very glad I did. I'm pretty sure the fabric shrunk.)
Oops! No worries, just cut it off.
2. Cut 2 equal panels from fabric.
3. Pinned the vertical sides of fabric panels with about one inch hem.
4. Sewed the vertical sides of fabric panels.
5. Folded the top over about 2-3 inches and pinned. I stuck my curtain rod in to make sure they fit.
6. Sewed the top of the curtain panel (where it would hang)
7. Repeated step 3-6 for second panel.
8. Hung curtains without the bottom hem to see if I liked the length.
9. Recruited The Mr. to move my curtain rod up 6 inches. Yay! Remember when I first noticed this?
10. Rehung curtains and measured 2 inches up to sew bottom hem.
11. Sewed the bottom hem and ironed with starch.
12. Hung and fell in love! (Wow, I was amazed, adding 6 inches of curtain height did a lot to this room!)
I'm proud to introduce you to the new lovelies that await me every night…..
Some of you might be intimidated by my sewing but seriously any one can make curtains. Check out YHL's tutorial for no sew curtains. You can buy iron on hemming tape. It's awesome! (I used it with the lovely Brienn Darr when we recovered her chairs.) Total time spent....Eh, probably 2 1/2 hours or so. Best part...sewing machine worked like a champ! (That's not always the case!)
Things I learned about curtains:
They're pricey. Get over it!
Raise 'em up!
Ikea curtains demand hemming. (Huh, didn't know that.)
You should measure your purchased curtain panels if sold separately. They are not always the same.
Keep thread on hand. I was so thankful I could bulldoze through this project because I had just the right color thread to match the fabric.
On a more personal note, today I'm celebrating having only 17 more days of students! Wow, that went fast!
