I have curtains in my dining room!!! (with a tutorial)

What am I into today?

Enjoying my new curtains!!!!!  Seriously.  It's been over 3 years since we re-did the kitchen and dining room area's and it's taken me that long to get curtains in there.  I couldn't decide on blinds when we had the $.  and now that we are short on cash, I decided to make my own!  I can't believe I waited 3 years to do this!  It took me about an hour.  Seriously.  And I didn't sew a single stitch!  Want to see how?  I'm sure you do! 

Start with getting your materials together.  Measure your window and then buy your fabric.  If you want the curtains to be totally straight when closed, then buy just a bit more than you would need for them.  I wanted 8 yards so I could make 4 panels for each window, but they only had 6.5 of what I chose, so 2 panels each is what I've got.  And that's okay.  I have enough fabric left to make two small panels for my small kitchen window, and a bit of fabric left over for whatever.  Maybe a small throw pillow?  Total cost of fabric:  $42

So, you've got your fabric.  When you are at the fabric store, also pick up a box of Steam a Seam 2.  It's basically a double sided fusible web of tape.  This is what's going to help you with your seams.  I didn't even use one box, but I had gotten two just in case.  I believe it was $3.99 each.

You will also need to buy some curtain rods if you don't already have them.  Since we didn't have any, I chose to get these.  These are simple spring tension rods that extend from 48" to 84".  I actually had purchased the smaller size before this and had to run out and exchange them as I was getting ready to put my curtains up.  Total cost of these:  $18

Okay.  Now.  Get out your ironing board and iron.  Seriously.  Dig that iron out of the back of the linen closet and find the ironing board in the back of the kids closet.  Or wherever you keep it.  Many people don't iron anymore these days.  The clothes many of us wear don't necessitate us ironing like we used to.  If you don't have an ironing board, you can use a bath towel folded and placed on your kitchen counter or dining room table.  But I highly recommend an ironing board.  This is my iron:

It's a Panasonic with two steam settings and blah blah blah.  It has a golden color plate for the iron plate.  Seriously.  You know why I bought this iron???  Because it has a retractable cord.  That's it.  The one singular reason why I purchased this one years ago.  I love not having a cord dangling about when I'm all done.  AND that I can reel it in when I've just turned the iron off and not worry about melting the cord around the hot iron plate.

What ever iron you have, it will work.  Get it set up and set to a temperature good for your fabric.  My fabric is just a cotton quilting fabric, so setting 5 was the one for me. 





Lastly, you need a way to cut your fabric.  Some people like scissors. Some like a straight edge.  I like this set up.

This is a self healing cutting mat.  A quick cut guide with 1/2 spaces, and a rotary cutter.  For me, this is the best and most simple way to cut straight lines in fabric.  And yes, that is the fabric I chose for my curtains under the quick cut guide.  Isn't it pretty????  Totally NOT what I had in mind when I walked into JoAnn's... but it totally works!









Now... I can't show you how I measured my fabric for my curtains.  I didn't use a tape measure.  In fact, I didn't use one at all for this entire process.  AT ALL.  Seriously.   First I folded the fabric in half width wise so it would fit under my quick cut guide.  Then I literally, made what I though was a good allowance for a top seam, and held the fabric up to the top of the window and let it hang down. Then I marked it with my hand at the bottom where I thought it should end, allowing for seams, and that's it.  Yep.  I eyeballed it.  Basically.  LOL

Then I folded my fabric over onto itself to make as many panels as I could in that length.  I ended up with enough for 5 panels.  Then I lined it up on my mat and with my guide and cut it with the rotary cutter.  I did not cut panel by panel.  I just had it all folded up on the mat and cut about 1/2" off the end of the seams and wa lah!  Done!  Cutting took me all of 2 minutes.

Now you are ready to make your seams.

First, using your fingers, make approximately a 1/4 inch fold along what will be the bottom edge of your curtain.    You can see my thumb guiding the fabric into place.  IRON this seam down.  I like to iron it and guide as I go.  So I'm really only guiding a few inches at a time and not trying to guide 44" of fabric at one time.  That's too hard.







Next, you will fold this same seam up to make it about 1/4" to 1/2" wide total.  Again.  Iron it down.

You can see me ironing the bottom seam down here.  (I'm using a previously finished panel as my guide to make them all as close to the same as possible.  

Then you will get out your Steam a Seam tape. It's a very simple thing to use.  I like to do it in smaller sections than the length of my fabric for ease of use.  After my seam is ironed down, I take the tape and I pull it apart. I know... the directions say to put it down and then pull the second side of paper off.  That didn't work for me.  So, I do this:

I take the whole thing apart so I have this strip of webbing.  I then place this strip of webbing inside the seam as close to the top edge of it as I can.  It doesn't have to be perfect.  Make sure the webbing lays flat though. 

After getting tape in place, you guessed it, iron it again.  You will need to go over every part of the seam for about 10-15 seconds.  I tend to just iron very slowly and make 5-7 passes.  I go over the ends again, just to make sure.











Now you are ready to make your top seam.  This is slightly different, but begins the same way.  Make a 1/4" fold and iron it down.  NOW, it changes.  You need to have a pocket for the curtain rod to go into.  So, you need to make your seam bigger.  Mine is approximately 2" wide.  So, you fold over your fabric that 2" and iron it down.  Doing the same thing with the tape, placing it as close to the top edge as possible (top from the perspective shown below), and iron it down.  Once that webbing tape is ironed and fused to the fabric, you are done with your first panel!  Yeah!  Done! (If you had to cut your edges due to selvaged stuff on the sides, you may have to also make seams on the sides...follow the same idea as the bottom edge... but if you didn't have to cut the sides, you are done.)

You can see here how I used a previously done panel as a guide to make sure my seams were the same size.  I just layed a finished one on top of the one I was getting ready to press down with my iron.  :)  Simple huh?  Again... no tape measure involved.


Make as many panels as you need for your windows.  For me, that was 4!

I put up the curtain rods according to directions.  Simple really.  Took 5 minutes.  Then I took them down and threaded my curtains onto them.







Here's a before picture of my south facing window:

See how bright the sun is coming in?  It's obnoxiously bright in the afternoons and especially in summer.

This is my west facing window.  Eating dinner at this table in summer is almost impossible due to the sun setting and coming in at an angle that blinds pretty much everyone sitting there.











And now??????  Ready????

See how pretty!!!!  You can see by the shadows on the curtains themselves that the sun is still brightly shining!  Imagine that sun shining right into your eyes as you work on the computer next to the table?  Ah!!!!  LOVE THIS!

Opened up a bit just by sliding the curtains with my hand.

Ignore the mess on the table:  look at how nice the curtains in the back look on my west window!!!!

See how nice they hang and how pretty they look? 


















And that my friends, is how to make curtains in about an hour.  I hope you enjoy and can make some of your own!  If you do, please send me some pics!  I'd love to see them!

Happy Saturday!