DIY Curtains—Panels

We finally finished!  It took us two days and my DIY stationary grommet curtains are done!   These curtains are not for the faint of heart.  There's alot of ironing (I'm more of a steamer kind of girl) and sewing, which I had hoped to avoid.  We tried hem tape, but shortly after ironing it on, the hems came undone resulting in an unplanned trip to Target for my very own sewing machine.

The instructions pick up after measuring the window for length.  I ordered 3 yards for each panel as I wanted to hang the curtains to make the 8ft ceiling height appear taller and have enough fabric remaining for a 4" top hem.

Step 1: Iron your panel and liner.  Don't avoid this step as your fabric will lay flatter during the measuring phase.  Read about my fabric selection here.

Step 2: Lay your panel flat on top of your liner and cut the liner to fit the panel.  Although I absolutely love the panel fabric, I decided to add a liner for additional privacy and thickness.

Step 3: Yep, more ironing!  For the side hems, fold the panel 1/2" and iron.   Fold the panel and liner together another 1/2" and iron.

Step 4: Now it's time for sewing!  Your ironed hems should be enough of a guide for you to sew, but if you need a little help add pins to keep a straight line.  Sew on inner edge of the hem.

Step 5: For grommet curtains fold the top hem at least 4".  Iron and
sew—I told you there was a lot of ironing and sewing!

Step 6: Add grommets— How to here!

Step 7: Hang curtains and pin the bottom hem at the desired length.  Curtain length is like jean length—you can never go too long, but you can definitely go too short (me circa 7th grade).  After pinning for length, you guessed it, iron and sew the bottom hem!

And that's how you get amazing DIY grommet curtains that look like you spent way too much, but didn't.

Dollars and Cents: 

Six panels took 2 days to sew and with hardware the project cost $710.40.  Here's the break down: 

Hardware: 3 at $119

Fabric: Panels- 17 yards at $8.98 and a 20% off promo code ($7.19/yard), Liner- 17 yards at $6.99 and a 40% promo code ($4.20)

Sewing Machine: $120

Misc: Thread, Grommets $40.00 after 50% off coupon

I originally priced this project with traditional box stores and Etsy vendors.  The lowest quote? $399 a window!  It would have cost us $1552 for panels and hardware for three windows.  We saved almost $850 doing it ourselves!

Yeah!!  This was definitely a fun project and my mom was here to help me through my first sewing lesson.  Thanks mom!