I’ve been seeing all these gorgeous ruffled curtains on pinterest and I’d pinned several different versions before I came across the one that I liked best -
After deliberating, I decided that I wanted to make these ruffled curtains for the curtain-less spare bedroom (yes, to answer any questions in advance, this is the to-be nursery. Unfortunately, the making of curtains is unrelated to any making of baby going on inside me). I also decided that I wanted to make the curtains in white, to take advantage of the light that streams in from the sole window in the room, and to play up the dark gray walls. One weekend and $60 later, here are my new curtains:
Having made that ruffled tree skirt for our Christmas tree several months ago, I knew that this project would add up quickly in number of hours spent on it if the ruffles were narrow, and I knew that this project would add up quickly in the number of dollars spent on it if the fabric wasn’t super cheap.
So I measured the window and the wall, then measured how high and wide I wanted to hang the curtain rod, in order to make the wall look as big and bright as possible. I learned the rules of hanging curtains high and wide from John and Sherry. Naturally. Since the wall is tall but angles in to a point the higher that you go, I could only go so wide while also being able to go high, so I ended up deciding on 86″ for the curtains height.
Off I marched to Hobby Lobby, where I went straight for the broadcloth section. Why? Because as I learned from the ruffled tree skirt, broadcloth is hecka cheap – $2.99 per yard. I purchased 3 yards per panel for the backing, and 6 yards per panel for the ruffles. That was a total of 18 yards. See why I went with cheap fabric? Still only cost $55, so these curtains came out WAY cheaper than it would have cost to buy them.
Here are all the supplies that I either had from a previous project or grabbed while I was at the store -
- Tape measure
- Pins
- Glue gun and glue sticks
- Hemming tape (mine was no iron because, well, I don’t own an iron. It’s double-sided sticky, and I find it much easier than using iron-on tape anyway)
- No-fray glue (to keep the edges of the ruffles from fraying)
- Scissors (not pictured)
- Candy (obviously)
Then I spread out the fabric and trimmed it down from its original 45″ width to 30″ wide – I wanted to make sure there would be some wall space left on either side of the window.
I then cut the trimmed fabric into six 3-yard lengths – 2 for the panels, and 4 to be cut into ruffles. I measured a 1.5″ hem for the top and the bottom of the panels, then used by 5/8″ hem tape to make the hem.
The easiest way to use hem tape is to use straight pins to create the original hem across the top or bottom of the panel, then cut short sections of tape , lift the hem, press the tape onto the panel, then peel the strip off the tape and press the hem down. If you try to use one long strip of tape, it’ll get stuck and make a big mess.
Once I had cut all of the various panels, I then measured out 10″ sections of the four 3-yard lengths that I had reserved for panels. I knew I wanted the ruffles to be fairly thick, rather than narrow like in the inspiration photo, because the thinner your ruffles are, the more you have, which is more time sitting there gluing them on.
When I had cut all of the remaining panels into 10″ sections, I then took the no-fray glue, squirted a little on my forefinger, and ran it over each of the cut sides of the ruffles. It only takes a few minutes to dry, and then I stacked up the ruffles.
Then I set up a card table in the living room, turned on Bridget Jones Diary, and plugged in my hot glue gun. Starting at the bottom, I began gluing the ruffles to the panels. I allowed the bottom ruffles to be about an inch longer than the panels, so they would “sweep” the floor and pool just a bit, and then just started working my way across and up the panels. I had 9 rows of ruffles, I think, per panel. I didn’t remember to count them but I believe that was correct. I overlapped each row by about an inch, to make sure that the tops of the ruffles wouldn’t show when the curtains were hanging up.
Creating the ruffles themselves isn’t very hard – I just squirt some glue, then fold and press the ruffles. It took me all day Saturday to get all the fabric, cut it all out into the various sections, do the hemming of the panels, and glue the ruffles to the first panel. After church on Sunday, we got home around 1pm and it took me until 5m to do the second panel. Based on that, I would say the prep time is at least equal to the actual gluing-of-the-ruffles-to-the-panels time.
Once all the ruffles were glued on, I then took the hem that I had created on the top of the panel, and folded it down about 1/2″ over the top row of ruffles. I don’t like the look of the tops of the ruffles, and doing this second hem gave the curtains a much more finished look. I hemmed it just as I had before – pinned the hem into place, then went through with the hemming tape and pressed the hem down onto the ruffles.
Then after a quick trip to Target for a $30 curtain rod and $6 in ring clips (which just clip onto the panels so I don’t have to mess with curtain rod holes), we mounted them up and into place.
I’m thrilled with the final product -
Don’t mind the rocking chair. It’s in there because I haven’t come up with anywhere else for it – it belonged to my great-grandma and was given to me, but the embroidery on the seat cushion and back really needs to be restored and tightened before it’s sat in on any sort of regular basis. But I digress.
So these are my new curtains – what do you think?
Those look great! I’m jealous, no way could I have made that happen.
First-I LOVE Young House Love! I learn so much from John and Sherry!
Second-I ADORE the curtains! I can’t believe you didn’t sew a thing. Now I really want to make ruffled curtains. They look amazing. Great job Beka!