Sewing Lesson #1: $6 Curtains

I do more than make jewelry.  I guess that's why I've taken this little break from blogging: I was just too busy with all kinds of other stuff.  I like to adhere to craftiness in all its forms.  I love sewing, and I've seen a number of posts from Facebook friends who have machines but don't know what to do with them.  So when I decided to make some curtains for my bedroom this morning, I thought I'd share the process with everyone.  Curtains can be about the simplest sewing project possible, and relatively quick to make.  I finished mine in under two hours.

Here's the window desperately in need of covering:

It's right at the head of the bed, facing east, so the sun streams in the window in the morning.  I like being woken up by the sunlight, but I wanted curtains to minimize the direct sun and resulting heat.  Something breezy and cheerful and light.  

A twin-sized vintage sheet!  Perfect.  The measurements turned out to work just right.  In order to have the right amount of drape to the curtains, I wanted them to be a few inches longer than the bottom of the window, and twice as wide (to make a nice gather at the top).  If you're making your own curtains, make sure you take into account where your curtain rod sits (is it above the window or within the window box?) and the hems you'll have to use to finish the edges of the curtains.

Once you've chosen your fabric, get out your iron and eliminate all those creases and wrinkles.  Ironing happens to be my least favorite step in the sewing process.  It's boring, so make sure you listen to something good while you're doing it.  I got down to Feist's new album, Metals.  If you hate ironing more than I do and choose to skip this step, you run the risk of screwing up the next step.

Cut the fabric to size, again making sure to add between 2 and 6 extra inches in each direction, depending on how wide you want your hems to be and how big your curtain rod is.  I like using sheets for this kind of thing because they're already a big rectangle.  I just folded mine in half and cut down the middle (because I wanted two identical curtains).  I was lucky that it was so easy this time: cutting to size is my second least favorite step.

Hem the sides and bottom (make sure you look at the pattern of your fabric before you decide which end will be the bottom--it's easy to rush and find out that you have a bunch of cowboys riding upside-down when you're done!).  I like a hem that's about as wide as my thumbnail.  Fold it over the thickness you want, then fold it over itself again to cover up the rough edge you just cut.  When you're done sewing the hems, iron to make them nice and crisp (Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot).

Figure out how deep your top hem needs to be in order to accommodate your curtain rod.  Mine was pretty small, but bigger at the outer edges, so my top hem wound up being almost 2 inches wide.  When you're done, iron that sucker (The Low Anthem; Oh My God, Charlie Darwin).

Tah-dah!  One of the easiest and quickest sewing projects, and a simple way to spruce up any room on an itty-bitty budget.  Maybe next I'll figure out a way to disguise that A/C unit!

The sheet cost $0.98 at a local thrift shop, and the tension rod was around $5 at Target.  Make sure you measure your window width before you leave the house to buy curtain rods.  It's no fun to get to the store and have to turn around just to make sure your guess is right.

Thanks for reading; hope this inspires you to make some floaty summer curtains for yourself!