One of my most popular posts (and by far the most pinned) is the one I wrote more than three years ago about turning sheets into curtains. Do these photos bring back memories?
I’ve been looking for curtains to update our entryway for what seems like forever. I actually bought a set at Target, but I had instant buyer’s remorse since $30 a panel was more than I wanted to spend and I wasn’t sold on the pattern. As luck would have it, the day I returned those curtains, I decided to take one last stroll down the textile aisles and came upon the motherload!
How could I forget that I didn’t have to stick to the curtain aisle to find great curtains? Check out all the darling sheets I found with great curtain potential!
To make two panels, you’d want to purchase full size or larger sheets, but none of the sheets above cost as much as the two panels I bought and returned that day. If you only need one panel or have two small windows to cover, you could easily do that with the clearance twin sheets above (bottom right) for $12.58!
But why stop at sheets? A duvet cover would definitely be big enough to turn into curtains (it might require a bit more sewing), or you could hang and hem two $10 tablecloths for practically instant drapes at 1/3 the cost.
I chose a full-sized set of the gray and white striped sheets above and got to work. This time I made my job even easier and hung the panels from curtain clips, eliminating the need for tabs at the top.
Here’s how the curtains turned out!
And here’s how I made them.
First I washed and dried the sheet set, making sure to pull the flat sheet out of the dryer before it got too wrinkled. Then I folded the sheet in half long-ways (hotdog style, if that helps!) and cut along the fold.
Then I hemmed the long cut edge of each panel by folding, ironing and pinning the hem in place and then zipping it through the sewing machine. If you want no-sew curtains, just use hem tape for this step!
Next I hung the panels up by the curtain rings and cut them to length. I eyeballed this step, but the panels were cut to about 4″ too long and had approximately a 3″ hem at the bottom when finished.
I used the top of the curtain ring packaging as a guide and ironed the bottom hem before sewing. Again, to make these curtains no-sew, just hem them with hem tape.
Once the hems were complete, I hung the curtains and called it a day. What do you think of the finished product?
I’m happy that this fun update was affordable (under $25 for two curtains), and I love having stripes in our entryway. During the day, the view from outside looks like plain white curtains, but at night you see just a hint of stripe from the light in the entryway. Cute!
In other house news, we got started on an outside project this weekend (see a hint in the photo above), and I found out I passed my comprehensive exams! All 4 of them!
Summer’s off to a pretty great start, indeed.
