No-Sew Striped Curtains

I'm finally finished with these curtains!  I got one panel finished about a week and a half ago and I put the second one off because (like always) the first one took longer than I thought it would (I'm also a pretty big procrastinator). 

These babies are phase one of my nursery switcheroo.  (I just started, so that's why there's art still hanging behind the curtains.)  I made the curtains to fix the window mistreatment situation that was going on in my son's room.  Before I hung these panels I had a hideous tan, black-out curtain on a tension rod.  It was always meant to be temporary, but it ended up staying in the room for way too long.  Since we still needed the windows to be darkened, I attached the black-out curtain to the back of one of my new panels.

I hope no one is looking for an in-depth tutorial because I made a big oops.  I could have sworn that I took how-to pictures when I made the first panel, but as it turns out, I didn't.  Of course I didn't realize this until I was completely finished with the second panel!

Oh well, it's not that big of a deal.  If you want to create striped curtains without busting out your sewing machine simply cut strips of fabric and attach them to a curtain panel with Heat n' Bond or Stitch Witchery.  My stripes are 10 inches and I used a yardstick to keep them even when I creased the edges with an iron so the raw edges wouldn't show.  It's that easy.

I used a $20 pair of 98" Rivta curtains from Ikea, a $10 black-out panel (that I already owned), a $5 navy flat sheet from Wal-Mart for my stripes,  and 3 rolls of Stitch Witchery.  All in all these curtains cost about 40 bucks.

Although I declared that I was finished with these curtains at the beginning of this post, I actually have one more thing to do:  baby proof them.  I bought two packs of curtain ring clips for these panels, but I could only find one of them when it came time to hang them.  Since I needed to take pictures I just went ahead and hung them through the tabs.  The rings are great because if Little Man decides to pull on them, only the curtain will come down instead of the rod and hardware.

I snapped this picture just minutes after I hung them up.  I'm off to find those rings!

I'll be linking up to:

No Sew, Lined Drapery Panels

My curtains are done and hung!

Here's the rundown of what it cost me:
6 yds. of fabric, $7/yard:  $42
2 Wal-Mart sheets, $4/sheet:  $8
2 rolls of Heat n Bond, $2.50/roll:  $5
                                  Supplies: $57
                                               -$35 (cash from old curtains sold on Craigslist)
                                      Total:  $20

$10 for each fully lined, 104 inch, floor to molding panel!  

These certainly aren't the most inexpensive curtains ever made.  I'd guess that they're actually pretty expensive DIY curtains because of the cost of the fabric.  I could have spent less, but that fabric (which looks more blue in person) was so perfect it was worth it, especially since I was able to sell my old curtains.

Here's what I did:

1.  Trim the sheet so that there is about three inches less sheet on three sides.

The picture below is the top of the curtain.  I left more at the top to create a pocket for a curtain rod.

2.  With the adhesive side down and paper liner up, iron on the Heat n Bond so that half is on the liner and half is on the drapery fabric.  Do this on the left, right and bottom of the panel.  Then peel the paper liner back.

 3.  Beginning with the bottom of the panel,  fold the curtain fabric twice.  The rough edge should not show and the adhesive should be covered so that when it's ironed, it will bond the hem.  Repeat with the other two sides.

4.  (I didn't get a picture of this! Oops)  Fold the top of the panel twice to cover up the rough edge (like the picture above, except it shouldn't be touching the lining) and iron on the Heat n Bond so that half is on the folded over fabric and half is on the back of the curtain fabric.  Peel off the paper liner and fold the top of the panel down so there is about three inches between where the top of the curtain will be and the part that you just hemmed.  This should create a pocket for the curtain rod.  Iron the fabric so that the Heat n Bond adheres.

Sorry if that last step was confusing!  Here's a picture of what it should look like:

I'm so glad to have these curtains finished.  Step one of re-coloring my living room:  done and done! 

Just a little footnote...this stuff is the bomb.  I ended up using exactly one roll for each panel.

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