What's Cookin' with the Johnstons: Custom Bedroom Curtains

You might remember that Jarrod and I are in the process of redecorating our master bedroom. It's a process as we are saving for everything we want and making a lot of things ourselves. It all started when Jarrod and his brother (and our nephews) painted our bedroom a soft grey color. We knew we wanted to change things up in our master bedroom because we finally have matching furniture...well, at least all the furniture matches the furniture in there, but it didn't match the bedding, drapes, or sheets. We have a ways to go in terms of furniture - our master bedroom is very large, but at least we can get started on a new look.

After the room was painted, we found this duvet cover at JC Penney's for a steal at just $44. While I love the duvet and think it looks fantastic with our dark furniture and grey walls, it doesn't match the blue curtains or brown accents in the room. It drives me crazy every day. Jarrod and I looked at pillow shams which would help a little and fell in love with these from Target. But for $25/pillow sham we've been waiting for them to go on sale before purchasing the shams. I'm open to other pillow shams, but like the simplicity of these gray ones.

While waiting on that, I've been chomping at the bit to get fabric for curtains and throw pillows. I fell in love with Waverly Modern Essentials collection (we used a lot of that fabric in the nursery as well) so I waited for a sale at Jo-Ann so I could hop on it. Jarrod and I picked out what we wanted and I went to waiting for a deal.

It finally came - a 50% off coupon! I ran right over to Jo-Ann and searched for our fabric. No luck. I asked about it and the sales people were less than helpful. I decided to get prepared so I bought the drapery hooks we'd need to hang the curtains while I waited to find the fabric. I went home and found the fabric number so I could call around to other Jo-Ann stores to find it. I called 4 places and finally found it! I put it on hold and raced over there on my lunch break on Monday!

I picked up 6 yards of fabric. It was regularly priced at $19.99 and I had a 50% off coupon. I also picked up a spool of matching thread. The whole purchase was $65.

That night Jarrod had the praise band from church over so I camped out in our bedroom with Lucy and we went to making curtains! (I washed the fabric first. It says dry-clean only, but I'm a rebel.)

I purchased more than enough yardage to use half for each panel. So the first thing I did was lay it on the floor, folded in half, and cut the fold. Two even pieces of fabric. Lucy helped me with the fabric.

After that I went to town ironing. I turned the iron on very hot and ironed out all of the creases. This is very thick fabric, so it holds wrinkles really well. Once it was somewhat smooth, I ironed and pinned down the sides. I did one long side first and doubled it over. I've heard this makes the edges look better and is easier to sew, so that is what I did. I folded it over about 3/4" and then folded that over 3/4" more, ironing and pinning as I went.

Once one long side was done, I sewed it with a wide seam allowance - maybe 1/2". Easy!

After this long side, I did the same thing to the other long side. Fold, iron, fold iron, pin! Once all the pins were in place, I got to sewing.

The third side I did was the top. Because my fabric didn't have a definitive top, I decided which side I wanted to be the top and folded, ironed, and pinned it in place with about 1" hem. Once it was pinned, I sewed that as well. The corners are a little bit tricky, just make sure that everything is even so that you don't have fabric peaking over the sides.

Because I wanted the curtains to lightly brush the floor, I decided to hang them at this stage. I purchased two packs of drapery hooks at Wal-Mart to make hanging a breeze. When the first panel was in place, I started on the second.

The first thing I did on the second panel was decide not to iron the whole thing. The first panel got wrinkled while I was sewing because it's so long and knew I'd need to iron and starch it once it was done. I'm all about efficiency!

I finished up the second panel right when the band was leaving so I hung it unhemmed for another day. Jarrod and I both like the colors and the brightness that the white background brings to the room.

A few days later I had some time so I measured and pinned the hem. I wanted the bottoms to just brush the floor so I eye-balled it and pinned it before making the final decision to iron and sew. I've heard that curtains should have a very hide hem on the bottom - makes them look more professional. So I sewed the hem with about a 3" seam allowance.