DIY Custom Curtains

What is one to do when you have 9ft ceilings and all of the curtain panels available in stores are 84″ and clearly not long enough to fit your windows?  Well, some retailers offer longer lengths on line and then there is always the option to go custom too but that can get spendy really quickly!!  So, when you can’t find anything in the store, have high ceilings, and don’t want to pay a crap ton for custom???  Oh yes, make them yourself…brilliant!  Here is a quick peek at some DIY Custom Curtains I made using store bought curtains and a fabric shower curtain.  Let’s face it…moment of truth…I am not great a sewing.  I can get the basics done but there is no way I’d be able to whip these babes up without a few short cuts.  I started by purchasing some ready made curtains from the store in the standard 84″ length.  That way I could use the tops of the panels that had the grommets.  I started by cutting the ready made panels about 18″ from the top…I needed to add some length and also wanted to bring in some color and pattern into the space so I found some fabric shower curtains that were on clearance.  Shower curtains are typically wider than a window panel so I knew that I was going to have to make some adjustments.

I wanted the outside seams to match but I didn’t want to completely disassemble the existing ones so I used a seam ripper to open up the edges, lined up the raw edges and re-sewed the hems.  It was a sort of figure-it-out-as-you-go type of project.  I did call on my friend Wendi to assist me in a few sewing techniques that I wasn’t up to speed on.  I ended up top stitching the edges per her recommendation and I’ll tell you what…it made all of the difference!

I didn’t snap any pics during the process but it was a pretty simple project…the tedious part was having to make four of them and determining the finished length.  I have a tendency to hang my curtain rods pretty high so I made the adjustments accordingly.  A project like this could go a little faster by removing one step…instead of adding the fabric to the center of the panel, the additional length could just be added to the bottom.  Either way, adding fabric to existing panels is a great way to achieve a custom look on a DIY budget.