How to Make Kids' Curtains out of Towels

With so many available colors, towels make great raw material for sewing projects like curtains.

Kids outgrow style preferences as fast as they outgrow clothing, so it makes no sense to spend a bundle on room décor you may just have to change again in a year. Fortunately, putting up new curtains is one of the cheaper ways to give a room a new look, so you can put the big bucks into something your kids need more – like that college fund. A quick, fun way to jazz up the kids room is with colorful towel curtains. As a bonus, for the younger and messier set, they are infinitely washable.

Things You'll Need

• Measuring tape
• Towels
• Straight pins
• Marking chalk or pencil
• Sewing machine or needle
• Matching thread
• Optional yarn, rope or ribbon tie backs

Instructions

1. Measure the window you want to cover from top to bottom to get the curtain length.

2. Measure the diameter of the curtain rod you will use and add that number of inches plus 1 inch to the measurement from the window.

3. Measure the width of the window and add half that number again to the measurement to allow for gathering the material on the curtain rod.

4. Buy as many towels of the proper length as necessary to span the width of the window plus the additional width.

5. Align the front sides of the towels together and stitch a narrow seam along one side to join them together into one section. Repeat as often as needed to get the desired fabric width for half of each window to create matching pairs with a center opening. Narrow windows may only need a single towel for each side.

6. Measure and mark the desired finished length on each towel section, then fold the fabric over at that mark and pin it on the backside with straight pins.

7. Stitch along the bottom of that fold about ½ inch up from the edge on each section to form the rod pockets and remove the straight pins.

8. Slide the curtain rods through the pockets formed on the back side of the towel sections and re-hang the rods.

9. Arrange the folds of the towels to hang neatly across the full length of the curtain rods or tie them back on each side with a colorful length of yarn, rope or ribbon.

Tips & Warnings

• Create matching valances using shorter or hand towels hemmed and shirred on rods the same way.

• If your towels have a lace or crocheted edge you want to show off, don't fold it back, but stitch a wide ribbon along the back side near the top to use as a curtain rod pocket instead. The ribbon won't show, and the edging will make a pretty accent along the top edge of the new curtains.

References

• Tree Living; How to Make Funky and Inexpensive Curtains out of Dish Towels