How to make your own DIY no sew cafe curtains.
Well, it’s Monday! Welcome to the work week everyone. Although I am home today. I was still wide awake at about 3:30 a.m., and back up at 5:45 when my alarm went off to get the kids up and ready. I decided to take a sick day because there is just no way I can function on less than 3 hours of sleep. I just got them off to school, and as soon as I get this post ready to go, I am hoping to go back to sleep for a while. How was your weekend? We were pretty busy. My son’s basketball game Saturday, then dinner with friends. And Sesame Street Live yesterday, then a quick lunch with LC’s parents. Not to mention that I made these curtains. I will tell you all about that fiasco!
I first got my grand idea for making café curtains for my kitchen from my favorite blog, Young House Love. Particularly this post.
Particularly this picture.
Young House Love has a great tutorial for how to make no sew curtains both on their blog and in their book (which was my fave Christmas Gift!) You can find the tutorial I used here. And here is a picture of the supplies Sherry uses to make the curtains. Fabric, scissors, a measuring tape (not shown), iron on hem tape, and an iron.
Before I get started, let me show you a before picture of the kitchen windows.
I decided I could do this! So LC went with me to JoAnn’s to choose some fabric (2 yards). They were having a sale for 50% off. I chose the fabric below, which was originally 10.99 per yard and I got half off that price. I first showed you this fabric here. I went to Walmart and bought a couple of silver café tension rods and some curtain rings. I basically followed the tutorial. You measure how long you want the curtains to be and then you add 1 inch to each end, which essentially means 2 inches longer and wider than you want the curtains. Let me assure you I was a complete novice at this. I had no idea how wide I should make them. So this took me waaaaaay longer than it takes Sherry, and another trip to JoAnns and Target. JoAnn’s did not carry the kind of iron on hem tape that Sherry’s tutorial calls for, so I just bought what they had, and it worked fine. It probably did not create as pretty of a scene from the opposite side, but I am fine with it. I can add a liner to them at some point if it bothers me.
How I made my DIY no sew cafe curtains:
I love the colorful polka dotted fabric. So does LC! He did help me with the fabric decision. It has all of the colors that are already in my kitchen, plus a pretty blue. I also like the heavier weight of the fabric. After cutting the fabric for the first panel, I went to iron on my hem tape. I first ironed a seem that was 1 inch wide.
Then I placed the hem tape along the edge of the folded over fabric and ironed it on, holding the iron in each spot for 10 seconds or so.
I was so excited to get the first panel finished and hang it up! This is what it looked like.
Go ahead, laugh. You know you think it’s funny. You know want to! That thing is pathetic! First of all the width should be waaay wider, second of all it was too short. I figured out mostly why. I forgot to add 2 inches to each side! Plus, I just knew I needed to make it wider so it would have some give.
This was also the reason why I had to go back to the store. I now needed more fabric, because I had messed up, so I got another yard. I also decided that I needed more curtain rings. But of course when I went to the mall I could not find silver ones, only oil rubbed bronze. So I purchased two oil rubbed bronze tension rods. But when I got them home they were too long for the window (don’t know why I didn’t pay attention to that.) So right now, I have silver tension rods and oil rubbed bronze rings. I will change that as soon as possible, but wanted to go ahead and hang them for now.
Anyway, after all of that, I finally got back to work and made my first two panels and hung them. This is what I had.
Go ahead, laugh again, I k now you want to. Totally uneven! Seriously, what was I thinking? I was now going to need more fabric!! This was going to end up not saving me any money at all! I did not want to waste this fabric, so I just made the hem a little less wide on the one on the left, and shortened the one on the right so they matched. And finally, I had two curtain panels that matched! Here they are!
Here is the second set I made. I was much more careful the second time to make sure they were both the same length.
And here is the finished project! What do you think? I love them! I got the stamp of approval from the rest of the family as well.
You can read more about the vintage bar cart that I made over here.
What I like most about these café curtains is that they only cover the bottom half of the window, so they create privacy, but a ton of light still pours in during the day. I am very happy with the fabric we chose, and I am feeling pretty confident that I can make some even larger window panels for my living room eventually. After I have painted the walls and ceiling.
that is perfect for those windows, and i love your fabric choice!
Why thank you! And thanks for stopping by my blog. I just visited yours and subscribed!
way to stick with it! I love that fabric!
Thank you for visiting my blog! I jsut visited yours too! Love your hosue. I made sure to subscribe on Google +.
They look great. Glad you finally got them the way you wanted them. I feel like my DIY projects are disasters half the time. Glad you could laugh at it and stick to it. I love the fabric with your wall color by the way. Visiting your blog for the first time. Found you through a link party. Thanks for sharing.
Christa,
Thank you so much for visiting my blog! And I am glad you like the curtains! It was a big lesson, but now I feel ready to make a bigger set of panels.
Well done you, they look awesome and give me faith that I can do it too!
Thank you! I hope you try it! Good luck!
You have inspired me to think about curtains for some of our windows. You had me with "no sew"and yours look wonderful. I love your cheery dot fabric, too.
Michele,
I am so happy that I inspired you! As you can see, it was a lesson in trial and error for me, but I got it done, and even my 12 year old son tells me they look like I bought them!
Your curtains are just darling, and I love that they are a no sew project. Thanks for stopping by the party at the Cabin tonight!
Dawn,
I really have no choice since I can't sew a lick! That is on my list of things to do! Love your kitchen!
Wow!! What a great writing, really I appreciate such kind of topics. It will be very helpful for us. Waiting for more articles, blogs like this.
Hi
This is a nice post.Curtains are so colourful in the post.I want to make a cafe which would be decorated by curtain.I have collected cafe curtain which makes my cafe so attractive so that people comes to my cafe.
Nikki…have been meaning to let you know that I found your blog a while back and I also cannot sew either. So when I saw this post about no sew cafe curtains I knew this was right up my alley. I followed your directions and am happy to say that I love my new curtains in the kitchen. I wish I had a picture to send. Thanks again for the tutorial.
Wow! I am so happy to read that I helped you out! Thanks for letting me know, I would love to see them!
An immense moonlike of commendation, reserve it up.
tie backs for drapes
You did it! 😀 I love the retro funk feel it adds to your kitchen. And because the fabric is kind of retro, it is okay that the fabric came a little short. Many clothes in the 70's and 80's were cut in awkward lengths, anyway. Might as well add a chalk menu board to complete the milieu! 😉 Roxie@http://www.WindowTreatmentsPhiladelphia.com
Look like awesome. thanks for your sharing wonderful post. Thank you.
Hi Nicki. My name is Naush. I visited you from the link party. I appreciate this post even more, becoz, you have shared a few of the goof-ups as well. Most of us share only the “perfect” end results – which is great. But one can learn more from the mistakes, others make, in a project.
Thank you so much for sharing. Really love how the curtains look. Did not even know, there is a thing called “Hem tape” !!!!
Much love
Naush