Baby Room Curtains

Back when I was still pregnant and starting to put together Emma’s room, I decided to make curtains. But much like the crib skirt that I started in July and didn’t finish until October, I started the curtains in July and didn’t finish until…last week. Yep, that’s 13 months to make 4 curtains, which seems ridiculous and I admit that it really is. But the full story is more complicated. See, I planned this project pretty thoroughly — I measured the windows and ceiling height, decided how much hem allowance to include, decided how to split the two-tone panels, and put all the numbers together to determine exactly how much fabric I needed. But I also wanted to keep things reasonably priced and that’s what turned out to be my major mistake…

The bottom line is that I went too cheap on fabric! The solid green fabric was cheap and therefore very thin — it puckered along every seam, and I never figured out a way to stop that from happening. In addition, I didn’t buy enough fabric — in my efforts to save money by minimizing the yardage needed for this project, I decided to make two curtains from a single piece off the bolt. In other words, the original fabric is 44 inches wide, so I decided to make two 20-inch wide from a single length. I could make 4 curtains from only 2 length of fabric which sounded great! But the thing about curtains is you generally want them to look nice and full. And with a piddly 20-inch width, it’s really hard to make that curtain bunch together and look full.

I made the first curtain back in the fall at the same time I was finishing the crib skirt, and was so disappointed in how it turned out that I never finished the other 3 panels. The lighter blue/green dotted fabric at the top (and that I used for the crib skirt) was great — it was a nice quilting cotton that had a little more weight to it and therefore both looks nicer and was easier to sew. The green solid was just toooo flimsy and cheap. For several months, Emma’s room had that single little curtain hanging from the rods. Sad. So last week I finally decided that since I still had the fabric and it had already been cut to size, I might as well finish. Four curtains, even if they’re kind of crappy, are still happier than just one.

So voila. Now you know the story of my sad, sad curtains. Sewing-wise this is a super easy project — but make sure you consider your fabric choice carefully!