Thursday, September 29, 2011

DIY Striped Curtains

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

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.

8 comments:

Kayla LeBaron Interiors said...

Those curtains look GREAT! =) Nice work. Looking forward to keeping up with your blog.

Kayla LeBaron @ LeBaronInteriors.blogspot.com

Caley said...

This tutorial is great! Thanks so much for posting it!

caleyparkdesigns.blogspot.com

Andrea @ Strawberry Chic said...

Thanks Amber! Now I just need to find some fabric on sale...what type of fabric works well for curtains by the way? did you just use cotton?

Amber Horch said...

I used a heavy upholstery cotton that I got at Home Fabrics. It was like canvas, if that makes more sense. :)

Clint, Marianne, Sage, Charlotte, Emery and Ivy said...

Hi Amber! I love everything about this room. I'm going to attempt the curtains.
Any chance you would sell the art you made above the crib? If so, let me know how much. Thanks!
mcoverton@yahoo.com

abkdesign said...

What color paint did you use on your walls?

Amber Horch said...

The paint color is Columbia, Luna Light.

Curtains and Drapes said...

These curtains are great deal! These curtains are really nice. The quality is good, especially with the panel on the back. Really blocks out sun. They are a great price for the product.