Striped Curtains {How To}

 I have received a lot of emails about the striped curtains I made in my son's bedroom and decided to share a little more info about how I made them. First off, I envisioned long floor length bold striped curtains for this space since day 1. I figured I could find some online, but after quite a while I couldn't find the right shade or thick enough stripes. I even considered painting plain curtains. At that point, I didn't know how the paint would look. Would it make the fabric crusty looking? Would it flake off? Could I even make the stripes even and would they look bad close up since this is a small space? After mulling that over, I decided my best bet was to sew my own curtains. So I headed off to the store and picked my fabrics. I measured my sons room from floor to ceiling to make sure I would make them tall enough (and ensure room to hem them). I also knew I wanted to do a grommet top panel. I chose a plain blue cotton fabric, but for the white I went with a thicker weave fabric. Almost like a light canvas. I didn't want the sewn seems to show through the white when it was all said and done. I was worried how the two fabrics would go together when I started sewing...but they stayed straight and worked well together. 

 I got my cutting mat, roller cutter, and measuring stick and went to cutting! I cut out all the stripes and laid them out to make sure they were long enough. (FYI, I did my strips 39" wide, 10" tall allowing a 1/2" seam allowance.)

After I got all the strips cut I laid them out to double check length and style choice. Looks good, onto sewing!

  I know I took pics of this but I can't find them. :( So hopefully I can explain. I started at the top with 1 blue and 1 white strip, front sides together (so when it is open the back of the fabric is where your seam is) and sewed them together with 1/2" seam allowance. After that, open it up and take the next strip and sew it to the edge of the previous strips. For example you sewed the top blue and white strip...next you would sew another blue strip right sides together to the white strip already attached to the blue. Keep adding on opposite color strips sewing the same way, front sides together.  After I had the stripes all sewn together as a front curtain panel, I decided to add blackout fabric to the back of the curtains since my sons room faces East and it gets SUPER bright and he wakes way early! I just cut it to the size of the front striped panel and laid them FRONT sides together and sewed together 3 of the edges (top and 2 sides) leaving the bottom open for me to hem. After this I pulled the fabric outside right (I know I'm making no sense!) through the open bottom seam and now you should have your almost complete curtain panel with all seams hidden safely inside. At this point I ironed the panels and got them ready for grommets. Here is a closeup of the edges before I turned it outside right so you can seem the seams.

 Now it was time for grommets. I bought 2 kits from hobby lobby and it came with easy instructions. These were super easy and kind of fun. :)
First use the template to mark where to cut the hole in top of panel. 

Now cut out the holes where you marked.

The grommets are kind of like snaps. There is a top and bottom and you just snap them together with the fabric caught in the middle.

 Next, you insert the bottom grommet.

Now set the top grommet on it and press hard together to snap them together.

And there you have it! Homemade striped grommet panels! I love how they turned out and I realized sometimes if you want something in particular...don't settle just create it yourself!

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