DIY Striped Curtains

I have been seeing striped curtains everywhere lately, like these lovely ones in this fabulous dining room.

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I love the bold yet sophisticated statement they make. I knew I wanted to do them somewhere in the model home. I didn't even look into purchasing them, because I knew they would be pricey, so I decided to make them. I have had several people interested in how I did it, but I didn't take any pictures of the process, so I am going to attempt to just tell you how I did it. First of all, I decided how long I wanted my drapes. The ceiling in the room is a standard 8', so I decided to try and get close to 96" so I could make the curtains floor to ceiling. I wanted 7 stripes, 4 orange and 3 white. I figured out that I needed to make each stripe 13" wide. With 7 stripes this would give me a 91" long curtain panel. I cut all three of the white stripes and 2 of the 4 orange stripes 14" wide to give me 1/2" seam allowance on either side. For the top and bottom orange stripe I added an extra 3" so I could make a large 3-1/2" seam at the bottom and top. I think drapes just look better with a large seam at the bottom and top. I used drapery rings to hang mine, but if you are not going to do that then you will want to make sure you have that large seam at the top to slide the panel directly onto the curtain rod. After all the fabric was cut I started sewing. If you can sew a straight line the rest is super easy. After all the stripes were sewed together I hemmed the bottom and the edges. Then I started all over again and did the second panel the exact same way. I didn't line the curtains, which you might want to do to protect them from the sun. The entire process probably only took me around 3 hours. Here is a graphic I quickly put together to hopefully explain the cutting process better.

I hope my math is right but total you would need 3.5 yards of one fabric and 2.5 yards of the other color of fabric. But, if you are like me and not completely confident that you won't make any mistakes, then I would get 4 yards of one color and 3 yards of the other just to be safe. Anyway, hope that all made sense. I love the way mine turned out in the nursery. They were a great focal point in the room and definitely gave it the look I wanted.