DIY No-Sew Curtains

Let's talk about curtains.


What, you don't think curtains are the most exciting topic of conversation? Well, so-ree, Mr. Highfalutin, social swinger with your finger shoved firmly upon the pulse of the nightlife scene, I'm gonna talk about curtains for an entire blog post. You can take your can of Rockstar Energy drink and go check out the latest one-syllable club to open in some basement downtown. You can do that, while I dote on curtains. Jerkstore.


Wait, what just happened? I think I just blacked out for a moment.... I, I'm sorry.


Anyway, back to the curtains. Besides paint, curtains are one of the simplest ways to transform the look of a room. And depending on how you obtain these curtains, they can also be one of the cheapest ways.


So, what, you're not a seamstress? You couldn't tell me how to turn on a sewing machine, much less properly operate one? Yeah, no matter how crafty I think I am, I've got news for you: I ain't no seamstress, either. Sure, I've got a sewing machine, I've used it a few times, but if I can find a way to make something without going through the stress of threading a bobbin, I'm all in. When faced with the task of sewing something, being lazy usually wins out in the end.


BUT, how difficult can sewing curtains be, right? I had plans to sew all our own curtains throughout the house. Curtains can be expensive, y'all, and they usually don't come in super-fun fabrics. So, I thought I'd make custom curtains that went flawlessly with our decor. 


I began with measuring all the windows in our living and "French" rooms, and then crunched some numbers to figure out exactly how much fabric I'd need to cover three standard and one picture window. Then, I ordered some adorable fabric I'd had my eye on for a while.


The fabric shipped super speedily, and I was ready to get to work! But as I looked at all that fabric, then over to my sewing machine, then back at my fabric, and then once again at my sewing machine, that's when the laziness set in. You mean, I'm going to have to set up the machine, pick out a complementing color of thread and then make sure I sew that thread in a straight line? I'd rather have a beer.


So that's where my DIY saviors, Young House Love, came in (if you haven't visited their blog, please, please do. They've got great style, a fun approach to home decorating and do almost everything around their home themselves - amazing inspiration!). They've also got a solution for lazy DIYers like me, and that is to make no-sew curtains. 


I had the fabric, I had scissors, I just happened to have some iron-on hem tape (Stitch-Witchery) on hand, and I had an iron and ironing board. That's all I needed to make awesome curtains. After realizing that making adorable curtains for my entire living/"French" room area would cost less than $60, I was sold.

So, I rolled out my fabric, measured it to the appropriate length, and cut away. Luckily, each panel needed to be exactly half the width of my fabric, so I just easily cut the fabric in half, width-wise, along the crease.

Once that was done, I took one panel, folded back about a half inch of fabric on each side, pinned everything in place, and ironed the crease to make it stay. Then, I went back around and placed my Stitch-Witchery inside the "seam", and ironed it down, all the way around the panel.

Ummm... guys. That was it. That's all I did. To hang the curtains, I bought clip-on curtain rings, then slipped it all on the pre-existing rods. I repeated the process five more times to make all the standard-sized window panels, then....


I ran out of fabric.


D'oh!


Math has never been my strong suit, and my "number crunching" was, naturally, totally off. Off by about three yards. Crap. So I hopped online to order three more yards of the same fabric, but apparently I had cleaned Fabric.com dry on my previous order, because they were completely sold out of the fabric I needed.


DOUBLE D'OH!


After a little scouring, however, I was able to find it at a different store, and it arrived the day before our first visitors to the house were to arrive. I whipped the remaining two panels together quickly, hung the curtain rod, and finally everything was pieced together. The curtains really soften the rooms, and the long, vertical panels seem to add height to the ceilings, as well. 

So easy. And not a finger was pricked by a needle. Success!

I hope this post about curtains didn't cut into your social life too much. But I assure you, you can make these curtains AND still get to the club in time to fist-pump and pound a couple Red Bulls and vodka. Just try not to   get hair gel all over the fabric.