Dining Room Curtains

Over the weekend, I made the curtains for the dining room. I had previously ordered the fabric and drapery lining from LS Fabrics in Atlanta. Wow, this was a big project, but it was definitely a rewarding one!

I decided to make back-tab panels because I didn't want the ruched look of rod pocket drapes but I didn't think I had enough skill to make pinch pleats. I made these with a no-sew method and used only Stitch Wichery to hem and bond the fabric together. I may go over some of the seams with the sewing machine in the future, but for now, these drapes look great and are serving their purpose. This is a great way to easily create curtains for your home and the no sew technique works great if they will be dummy panels that you don't intend to pull across the window.

First, I started out by measuring and cutting both of my panels of fabric. I wanted curtains that were 106" long  so I cut pieces of fabric that were 112", allowing 3" hems for the top and bottom.

Then, I used the Stitch Witchery to hem the sides of the fabric panels. I folded over 3/4" down both sides.

 At the bottom and top of the panels, I hemmed about 3" to make the panels the correct length. Be sure to check that your panel is square and your fabric is how you want it at this stage.

At this point, I had hemmed the top, bottom, and sides of the fabric panel. Here's what they looked like laying out on the floor.

I wanted to add a fabric lining to these curtains so they would look more polished and not look flimsy on the wall.  I cut the lining to fit just inside the panel, "sewed" it to the top of the panel and then folded the seams of the fabric over onto the lining, ironing the Stich Wichery to hold it in place.

Then, I hemmed the bottom of the lining so that it laid over top of the hemmed fabric.  

At that point, I was almost done. I then added tabs on the top of the fabric, at the right height, so that I could slide my curtain rod through. I don't have a picture of that, but basically it looks like strips of fabric on the back that the rod slides through.

And, here's the finished product:

Some of these pictures were taken at night, so the lighting and color of the room is a bit off. Here's a daytime picture:

Kevin and I are really happy with the result. It was a lot of work making these curtains, but we think they really look nice in the room. It's also amazing how much bigger the room feels with these floor to ceiling curtains.  They add drama and a point of interest in the room.

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