Country Peony: DIY Curtain

Thank you for visiting. I now have a new home at www.countrypeony.com. I hope you will find me there.

The open concept floor plan of our house was a major reason my husband and I fell in love with it. However, some aspects of our house may be a little too open concept. My husband and I are in the process of updating a large space next to our great room into a theatre space. That said, we wanted to be able to close off the open doorway if necessary. We also didn't want to spend a lot of money on a permanent fix for the doorway. So we decided to add a curtain. This curtain was extremely simple to create. We are very happy with the result, and as soon as we are not happy with the result we can take it down.

The hallway before the curtain was added.

For this simple DIY project, you will need: measuring tape, straight pins, fabric 1 1/2 times the width of the space you are covering to allow for scrunching (if you don't know how much fabric you need for your space, I would recommend bringing your measurements to the store with you and asking a sales associate what he/she recommends), sewing machine (or if you have the patience you can sew by hand), thread that matches your fabric, scissor, and a curtain rod with brackets and screws.

*As a warning, I am a visual person, and so I don't like to deal with exact numbers. So I do apologize in advance if this tutorial is more confusing than helpful. :)

I started the project off by measuring the thickness of the curtain rod. I took that measurement and then applied it to one end of my fabric. I marked off how much space I would need so the rod could fit into the fabric loop. Then I measured the same distance creating the same loop with stick pins down the same end of the fabric.

From here, I started to sew the edge of the loop that was attached by stick pins.

*When working with stick pins, always place the pin head toward you so that you don't stick yourself or ruin your machine when you are pulling the pins out.

*If you would like to create a nice hem, sew about a 1/2 inch seam to hide the rough edge of the fabric. Then proceed with sewing the loop for the rod to go through. I chose to keep the natural raw edge, because it matched the fabric that I was working with.

Next, I would recommend attaching the curtain rod to the wall. I mentioned above that I am more visual than number-based when it comes to projects. So, for the next step I inserted the curtain rod that was attached to the wall into the curtain loop. I then measured what length I wanted my curtain. I feel this is a good way to get the exact measurement and look that you are after. Maybe I am the only one, but I do not like curtains that are too short or too long. I prefer the curtains to hang a little and billow on the floor, but not to the point that they are a safety hazard.

So, while the extra curtain was laying on the floor, I determined where I wanted it to hang. I inserted my handy stick pins as a guide for where I wanted the curtain to end.

From here, I took the curtain off of the rod, and then sewed the curtain to the length that my stick pins were. I then restrung the rod through the curtain, and stepped back to take a look at the finished product.