curtains – Melodrama

If you ever have to hem curtains and you don’t know what to do with the leftover fabric, here’s an idea!

I needed cafe curtains for my kitchen window and a valance for my bathroom window, but couldn’t find anything I liked, in the right size, and at a price I felt like paying. I had leftover scraps from past curtain hems so I decided to dye them and make curtains to match my decor. I used Rit and mixed a couple of shades until I reached the desired color. I like to use paper towel pieces to check the color before inserting the fabric, just to make sure I like where it’s headed so I can avoid any surprises and having to color correct later.

I’m happy with the way the bathroom valance turned out! But the cafe curtains were a flop. They looked too stiff and heavy.

I used a different, sheer curtain scrap instead and love it now. The weight is much softer and I like the patterned detail.

So there you go! Save those hems to make more window treatments!

You guys, let me start by saying I’m bummed because I lost all of the how-to pics from this project when my old computer died, BUT I still wanted to share how easy it is to make your own curtains.

I couldn’t find any light blocking curtains that I liked for my bedroom so I took on the task of making my own. Curtains are the easiest thing to make if you can sew a straight line. All you need is enough fabric to make a panel long enough to fit your window and hem all four sides, leaving a big enough loop at the top to fit a curtain rod through. I found a really nice and inexpensive fabric in the perfect shade of buttercup yellow, but the problem was that it was too thin and let a lot of light through. We’re not morning people so this was a no-no. To remedy the problem all I did was lined my fabric with an old black out curtain from IKEA. Easy enough!

Doing that completely blocked any light from coming into my bedroom and also added some much needed weight and heft to the panel.