DIY Striped Curtains

Hello there! Sorry for the few days of no posts! I was celebrating my 25th and had so much fun with family and friends but of course had no time for projects. Nowwww we’re back with the last project before my (Jodie’s) bedroom reveal! A little striped curtains action in case the title didn’t give it away. I originally made these when I lived in Chicago for my bedroom and they’ve traveled with me and ended up in the same place. Because of this I have limited in-process pictures but I’ll try to explain it the best I can without them : )

What you’ll need:

• Fabric! I ended up using 3 yards of gray quilting fabric and 3 yards of white quilting fabric
• Iron-on hem & Iron
• Measuring tape
• Sewing machine (only if you want! you can use the iron hem for the whole project if you’d like)

Step one was to determine the length of the panels you’d like to make and decide how many stripes you’d like. I decided to make 6 stripes at 14″ each per curtain and cut my fabric accordingly. I kept the same width that the fabric came in, but if you’d like narrower curtains now’s the time to cut that down as well!

Step two was to prep the individual stripes. In order to create a clean edge, I used the iron on hem product to “hem” the two long sides of each panel. Simply fold over the edge of the fabric, add the hem product and iron away. This is a little time consuming to do all 12 stripes, but makes your end product so much nicer looking.

Step three was to connect the stripes. I used iron on hem again to connect the individual panels so that there were no visible sewn seams. Just follow the instructions on your product (it’s SUPER easy and usually involves ironing with a damp cloth to activate the product) and repeat!

Step four was to clean up the raw edges of the curtain. For this I decided to use my sewing machine instead of the iron-on hem. I was A) really tired of ironing because I don’t have the patience to do my own clothes, let alone a huge curtain and B) I wanted to add a bit of dimension and strengthen the panels since I have a kitten who loves to climb them.

I used my sewing machine around all four edges and was ready for the final step, creating a way to hang these bad boys! I chose to add a tab top and sewed on large “tabs” to the top of each curtain using extra fabric. The easiest way would be to add clips or a rod pocket by folding the top of the fabric over enough to fit your curtain rod, and sewing or ironing away.

This was my first project using the iron on hem and so far it’s held up pretty great! What I love is that if it does happen to rip, it’s very simple to pull out your iron and fix that certain spot. A+ for appearance and ease to repair, B- if you don’t have a lot of patience with your iron. I think sewing is faster, but not everyone loves their sewing machine so this is an amazing alternative!

Again, this is a great way to also hide those can’t-change-those-terrible-broken-vertical-blinds-because-I’m-renting problems. Now you see them,

Now you don’t!

Prost!

-J&P

Linking up to: The Happy Housie