Curtain panels are so pricey! Even to buy enough fabric and make them yourself can really add up! So here is how to get nice curtains on the cheap.

I had a random single navy & single white panel from Pottery Barn Outlet, and I bought a two pack of navy and a two-pack of white panels from WallyWorld. So there are actually six, not three, panels pictured here in the “before” pictures because I “lined” each navy panel with a white one to make them a little fancier and for more light control. When I hung these curtains in my now-eight-year-old’s room, I hung them high with the intention of lengthening them…

Um, yeah, that was 2007, five years ago…

But today I got all gung-ho and lengthened them. The original panels were all 84″, too short to span the height needed. So I bought another two-pack of navy and two-pack of white short length (63″) to add to the bottom of the existing panels. I cut the short panels in half from left to right & cut off the tab tops. As the old and new were the vsame width, all I had to do was sew a straight line across to attach the existing panels to the extension pieces, right sides together.

I took the panels down and laid them out on the floor of our foyer (the only work surface large enough!). I removed the decorative buttons and [ahem] the safety pins that were holding the white lining to the navy panels.

Then I did a little cut-and-paste… Or, er, cut-and-sew… [Below: the “commitment cut.” YIKES!] One of the panels was wider, but I hemmed it up the side so it was the same width as the other two and so the added navy fabric was already the right width.

I not only wanted to lengthen the curtain panels, but I also wanted to change them from tab top to belt loop top. I don’t really like the way tab tops look, and belt loop tops pleat SO nicely and naturally when opened! All I did was foldover the tabs and sew straight across the top of the panel.

Then I hung them back up to pin where the bottom hem needed to fall, took them back down, and sewed that straight across. [And actually, as providence would have it, I only had to hem one of them, the other two had the bottom half of the “add on” fabric panels, and they were the EXACT RIGHT LENGTH! Crazy! ] Not too much later, we got to the “after”! Woohoo!

Way-hey! Three gorgeous, lined, full-length, pleated curtain panels for about $50! Nice.

Any curtains lying around you want to add a little somethin’ somethin’ to?

*

You might like these other posts…