Make No-Sew Curtains, step by step

We are back with our homemade nursery curtain panel how-to.

Remember when we revealed our punchy patterned find during last week’s shopping post? Well here is how we took it from one big bolt of rolled up fabric by P Kaufmann…

… to three vivid floor-length curtains (two for the window and one for the doorless closet). And likely best of all: there is no sewing machine required. In fact, here is my short and sweet list of supplies: tape measure, scissors, iron on hem tape, and an iron of course. Plus we even brought in a few kid-safe features so stay tuned for those details…

But before we get into all the dirty curtain-makin’ details, we should mention that we hope our baby sleeps well. So in the interest of aiding our little one in that area, we chose that we also needed to grab some sort of 100% light-blocking blinds or shades. So we trolled the aisles of Home Depot and found some chic white faux-wood blinds. We enjoyed them because they felt nearly like substantial wood shutters when they were lowered (a lot more solid than those thin plastic or metal venetian blinds) and they certainly would block any and all light when in use (and could easily be pulled up and out of the way to let light stream in during the day).

But here is the bummer. Of course they did not come in the exact measurements of our quirky old house’s window (39 1/4″ wide in case you are wondering). Sadness. But we soon learned that Home Depot could in fact cut them down to custom fit our window perfectly- and the cutting service is F-R-E-E. That turned our frown upside down. So we give the guy in the orange apron our window’s odd width and he had our custom-cut clean-lined faux wood blinds waiting for us about five minutes later. The blinds were not especially low-cost at $37, but they look convincingly like much pricier white wood blinds and we know the darkness that they’ll provide will be priceless when we are dying for one more minute of sleep.

Of course we also liked that they did not have those dangerous loopy pull cords (they were labeled as having “kid safe cords” that are in fact separated instead of connected so they are less of a strangulation hazard- no loop to get caught in). And of course we plan to keep them wound around one of those cord wrangling pieces of metal at the top right corner of the window far out of baby’s reach anyway, but we enjoy the brought in loop-free design.

And since we enjoy a before picture, here is the window prior to our little curtain and blind fest:

John had the blinds up in about twenty minutes, but they certainly left a lot to be desired in the length department. They were in fact a bit heavy to raise and lower, all due to the fact that they were at least two feet too long for our window, so there were a bunch of slats that simply clumped together at the bottom of the blinds when they were in the “lowered” position. Luckily in the installation instructions they in fact detailed how to shorten them to customize their length to fit any window. Pleasant.

So John simply followed the included directions and popped out these little plastic pieces on the bottom and could easily remove as many slats as he’d like and trim the excess string. Then he simply popped the bottom pieces back on and we had an even more customized nursery blind that was a lot less cumbersome to raise and lower without all those extra slats at the bottom. Then, like a finely tuned relay team, John tagged me and said “your turn” and I began working on the curtains.

First I measured the approximate height that I hoped the curtains to be (simply shy of 8′ for an nearly floor to ceiling look) and brought in an inch and a half on the top and bottom to accommodate the hem. It was in fact a pleasant clean measurement in the end because I determined that cutting two eight foot long sections of fabric would do the trick perfectly (since I hoped them a bit shy of 8′ but with the brought in hem measurement it brought them right back up to 8′ exactly). Hurrah for no quarter of an inch calculations!

The other especially convenient thing about measuring out my fabric was that we already happened to have our new 5 x 8′ rug on the floor… so to cut my 8′ long fabric sections, I simply rolled the bolt from one end of the rug to the other and cut a straight line using the edge of the rug as my guide. It does not get much easier than that. And for the width I simply left each panel as wise as the bolt allowed (so I did not need to trim those edges at all).

Then it was time for my trusty Heat N’ Bond iron on hem tape (I consistently grab the “ultra hold” variety). You may have seen us using it in this crib skirt walkthrough from a while back and we have also used it to hem all the white Ikea curtains that we have hanging in the rest of the house. In short: I am a hem tape black belt (the irony is that John does all the clothes-ironing in the house). Anyway it is strong stuff for leaving a polished and clean-looking edge (a lot more reliable then me with a sewing machine!) and it is even washable and especially low-cost (we grab ours for a few bucks a roll at Michael’s). So I whipped out the ironing board, fired up the iron, laid out my big eight foot long fabric panel and had my scissors and hem tape on hand.

All it took was an straightforward-iron hem on each of the four sides of my fabric (for step by step hem tape instructions, simply check out this post). Then I had a pleasant wrapped up panel (without any rod loops or tabs) that I could clip up using my low-cost-o oil-rubbed bronze curtain rings and rod from Target. Simply look at how seamless and ideal that edge is! Much more even and less bunchy than anything I could sew…

Then I tagged John to get to work hanging the curtain rod with heavy duty anchors (so it’ll never come toppling down, even if over 100lbs of force is used) while I created a third curtain panel for the closet (this one only needed to be seven feet long). I also made a little rod pocket at the top of this panel (I simply positioned hem tape about 4 inches below the edge of the fabric and ironed the fabric to that line of hem tape created a pleasant loop of fabric). Meanwhile John was already executing my let us-cheat-our-off-centered-window-so-it-looks-more-balanced plan.

This angle gives you a better idea of what we were dealing with. See how the window is shifted a bit too much to the left? Well it is nothing a curtain rod and some billowy floor length curtains cannot totally solve. I asked John to hang the left curtain rod support hook only about four inches wider than the trim on the left side of the window but requested that he hang the right curtain rod support hook about fifteen inches wider than the trim on the right side of the window.

This way, once we hung each of the curtain panels, we could cheat them both over to the right (blocking a bit of the window on the left side, but adding a ton of balance and polish to the room):

And we also mentioned in our shopping post that we snagged our plain oil-rubbed bronze curtain rod along with two packs of curtain rings on clearance at Target for less than $12 total. We enjoy the height and the elegance that the shot of dark color brings to the wall, and enjoy that it echoes everything from the mocha finish on the floor to a few of the darker wood accents that we will be bringing in to keep things from getting too sugary sweet and matchy-matchy.

Plus the clip-on curtain rings are in fact something of a safety feature. Remember how we mentioned that someone could hang on those curtains without the rod coming down thanks to the use of some heavy duty anchors? Well we also realized that using clip-on curtain rings would allow for simply the fabric panels to pull down if anyone got too rowdy and tried to swing from them (while the rings and the rod would most certainly stay put). We even tested them out by tugging on them a bit, and although it took fairly much all of my pregnant adult weight, sure sufficient the fabric was released from the rings and fluttered lightly to the floor while the rod and the rings stayed pleasant and securely in place on the wall.

And as someone who has never used curtain ring clips before I simply have to sing their praises. Not only are they pleasant little secret safety features, they also create such ideal little “waves” in the panels which result in such an amazingly high end look (and best of all, there is no rod-pocket required, so you can hang any panel of fabric without worrying about extra sewing or loop-making).

Update: This P Kaufmann fabric seems to be discontinued now, but here is an affiliate link to another lively oversized floral print on amazon for anyone looking for something similar.

Oh and we cannot forget our compact little blue closet (thanks to John’s cute idea to bring the aqua color from the ceiling into the mini enclave for lively). Does not the curtain panel add some pleasant pattern and sweetness to a closet that was formerly fairly bleak looking?

Perhaps we should refresh your memory with a before pic:

It is looking better already, right? And of course we still have to add bins, baskets, and more hanging rods (along with some sort of storage piece on the floor of the closet).

As for how we swagged our curtain panel so it is mostly out of the way, we simply hung it on a $3 tension rod (one that screws into both sides of the molding for more reinforcement than those that rely only on tension). Then we brought in a regular old Ikea coat hook that we already had on the left side of the closet’s interior trim. Next I made a little strip of fabric (using my trusty hem tape to finish the edges) and used that to create a loop around the curtain panel. Note: it is safety pinned in the back so it can easily be took out and readjusted.

Then it was as plain as slipping my loop of fabric onto the hook on the side of the closet to hold the curtain off to the side.

So that is the story of how we made our off-centered window look more balanced, blocked out all the light for less sleepless nights (fingers crossed) and brought in a lively pop of pattern to both sides of the nursery in the form of breezy floor-length curtains (which make the ceilings feel about a foot higher). Plus we only spent about $35 a panel (with nearly an whole yard of fabric leftover!). Oh and it consistently makes us smile at our fabric luck when we recall that it is in fact indoor/outdoor fabric, so it is a lot more stain and fade resistant than the average bear (although still fully washable). Which is a good thing when it comes to sticky fingers and goey faces…

But what about you folks? Have you made your own curtains before? Do you have a closet with a panel of fabric on a tension rod in lieu of a door? Spill the sewing (or hem tape) beans.

Psst – Wanna see our nursery progress from the quite beginning? Here is our painting post, our big shopping spree, and our crib hunting rundown.

Update – Want to know where we got something in our house or what paint color we used? Simply click on this button: