I’m proud to say that I have made all the curtains in our house. In total, there are 5 sets: blackout curtains in our master bedroom, Grayson’s bedroom, and our bonus room, and blackout Roman shades in our living room. The newest set (which is what I’ll be covering in this tutorial) is regular, unlined curtains in our kitchen. Since I couldn’t think of any reason why I would need blackout curtains in my kitchen, I omitted the lining, which made these the easiest curtains I’ve made so far!
Here’s what you’ll need:
- home decor fabric (mine was 54″ wide)
- ruler
- scissors or rotary cutter
- sewing machine
- thread
- pins
- iron and ironing board
First, you’ll need to measure your window to determine how much fabric you’ll need. My window is 68″ wide x 84″ tall. The width doesn’t really matter too much unless your window is REALLY large or REALLY small, in which case you’ll want to adjust your fabric accordingly. As far as the height goes, this will determine how many yards of fabric you’ll need. Since I knew I wanted my curtains to hang about 6 inches above the top of the window, I added 6″ to the initial 84″ measurement, which brought my total to 90″. So determine where you want your curtains to hang and measure from there. Then you’ll need to add 10 inches to that measurement (2 inches for the top hem and 8 inches for the bottom hem).
So, here was my measurement:
90″ + 10″ = 100″
That was the total for one side. Remember you’ll need to make two curtains. So my total fabric length needed to be 200 inches. Since I like to play it safe and have some extra fabric just in case, I bought 6 yards of fabric (or 216 inches).
Measure and cut your fabric. You may need to fold your fabric in half lengthwise once or twice to be able to cut in a straight line if you’re using a cutting mat (which I highly recommend).
Once your fabric is cut, turn it so the wrong side is facing up. Fold and press the side of your fabric (going lengthwise) one inch, or if your fabric has designer and color information on the side like mine did (see picture above) you can fold it until you start to see the pattern on the right side of the fabric.
Fold and press one more time so that you have a one inch hem going down the length of your fabric.
Pin in place and repeat on the other side.
Sew both hems as close to the edge as possible. Don’t forget to back stitch at the top and bottom of your fabric to secure the thread.
Here you can see my stitch placement on the hem.
Time for the bottom hem. Make sure your fabric is still facing with the wrong side up and turn up your fabric 4 inches (across the width) and press.
Fold up 4 inches again and press. This will create a nice thick hem at the bottom.
Pin in place and sew as close to the top edge as possible (just like you did with the sides).
Here’s another example of my stitch placement on the bottom hem.
We’re almost done! Time for the top and final hem! Turn and press your fabric one inch.
Turn up one inch again and press.
Pin in place and sew. You’re all done with the sewing!!! Now we just need to attach our curtain rings and hang it up!
These curtain rings with the clips are such a time saver, because you don’t have to worry about making holes for the rings!
Tada!!!! Beautiful new curtains, and you made them yourself!!
These curtains add that special touch I was looking for in my kitchen. I can’t believe it took me almost three years to decide this window needed some pzazz!
Here’s a picture of them closed. They’re so colorful and cheery!
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments section.