How to Make Curtain Panels
Making your own curtain panels prevents you from being limited to the designs, fabric patterns and colors carried by department stores and catalogs. One of the biggest problems with ready-made curtain panels is not being able to find the right sizes. Many homes have odd-shaped windows, and if you live in an older home, today's standard curtain sizes may not fit most of your windows. However, if you have basic sewing skills, you can make professional-looking curtain panels that fit your windows and suit your style. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Choose a hanging system for your curtain panels. Your options include rods and poles made of wood, brass or iron with coordinating rings and clips to hold the panels. Track systems use slides and hooks to suspend the curtains. Tracks typically allow curtain panels to be closed simultaneously by pulling on a cord. Poles and rods often require pulling each panel by hand to cover the window.
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Decide how long you want the curtain panels to be. Floor-length curtains can fall about ½ inch above the floor from the curtain rod or they can be bunched on the floor in a puddle effect. Sill-length curtains should hang ½ inch above the window sill. Apron-length panels can hang about 2 to 4 inches below the sill.
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Determine the initial width of the fabric needed to make your curtain panels by measuring the length of the pole, rod or track you chose between the stops, finials or knobs on the ends. If you choose a patterned fabric, extra material may be needed to match the pattern along the width of the panels to avoid a mismatched look. A fabric retailer should be able to tell you the measurement of one pattern repeat to make sure you buy enough material to complete your panels.
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Pick a heading tape for your curtain panels. Heading tapes easily create a gathered or pleated look at the top of the panels, and they are available in several different styles. After the tape is attached, pleats or gathers are created simply by pulling on cords within the tape. Heading tapes create different amounts of fullness in the panels and often require the fabric width to be at least twice the length of the rod or track to accommodate the gathers or pleats.
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Cut the fabric large enough to accommodate all your measurements, allowing extra inches to accommodate seams and folds. Otherwise, sew the fabric together, matching any repeat patterns, to make the panel large enough for your window.
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Fold the bottom, top and sides of a curtain panel to the wrong side to create a 5/8-inch hem and press the folds. Fold the sides over again by 1 inch and press them in place. Now fold the bottom hem again by 3 inches and press it. Sew down the folds with thread that closely matches the fabric, stitching close to the inside edges to hold them in place.
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Attach the heading tape to the top to complete your curtain panel. Position the tape just below the top fold, and sew it in place lengthwise along both sides.
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Tips & Warnings
Curtain panels suspended from rings or tabs will hang lower than those suspended from tracks. Adjust your measurements accordingly. Choose solid-color fabrics to avoid buying extra material to accommodate pattern repeats.
Make sure floor-length curtain panels aren't too close to heating sources.
