I hope you’ll will forgive me for postponing the master closet reveal for one more day. Blame it on the UPS guy (again), but I just couldn’t share the finished result before it was actually finished!
Instead I’m going to share a little tutorial on a DIY project inspired by this post. Remember on Friday how excited I was when my new shower curtain arrived?
And how disappointed I was when the color wasn’t the yellow I was looking for?
After about 6 hours of googling every shower curtain known to man, I decided I would just have to make my own. With a little encouragement from my pals Liz and Holly, I started doing some experiments on the best way to paint stripes on fabric.
The solution I came up with? Good ol’ fabric paint on a flat white sheet!
Tutorial: How to Make a Striped Shower Curtain
Step 1: Wash and dry your sheet. I used a white full-size flat sheet from Walmart. 8 bucks baby!
Step 2: Fold the top hem of the sheet in half and iron it down. This is to reinforce the top edge of the (future) shower curtain and to make the proportions look right.
Step 3: Then sew along the original seam in the top hem of the sheet.
Step 4: Measure the top seam and use pins to mark where the holes for your shower curtain hooks will go. My sheet ended up being about 77″ wide after washing and drying, and I needed to make 12 holes. With one at each end, that ended up being 11″ between pins.
Step 5: Get ready to make button holes! Mark the top and bottom of a button hole where you placed each pin.
Mine were about 1/2″ from the top edge of the sheet and about 3/4″ long.
Step 6: Using a zig zag stitch, sew the edges of your button hole.
Step 7: Cut out the center of the button hole. (There’s probably an easier way to make button holes, but this is the only way I know how!)
Step 8: Hang your shower curtain as high as you will want it and pin the bottom edge for hemming if necessary. I decided to use this opportunity to make the curtain longer than standard. About 10″ from the ceiling looked right, and I ended up cutting off maybe 8″ for the bottom hem.
Step 9: Hem the bottom edge. I used iron-on hem tape for mine (SICK of sewing after those darn botton holes!) 🙂
Step 10: It’s getting close to paintin’ time! Lay out your shower curtain on a flat, protected surface and measure the length.
Step 11: Decide how many stripes you want and mark the edges. I went with 9 stripes about 9-1/4″ wide each. Here’s a tip – use a marker the color of your paint to make your marks.
Ahhh, the return of the Frog Tape. If you’ll remember my disastrous closet stripe experience with Frog Tape, you might think I’m crazy to trust that stuff with my striped shower curtain. Luckily I did a quick test on an extra piece of fabric beforehand, and I’m happy to say it worked great!
Step 12: Tape along the edges of your lines and get ready for the fun part. 🙂
Step 13: Paint your stripes! I used about 2.5 tubes of this Tulip Soft Fabric Paint in Sunshine Yellow and 2 foam brushes when it was all said and done.
Just be careful not to get any paint on the parts that are supposed to stay white!
Step 14: Once the stripes have been painted, pull off the tape and gasp at the beauty that is your very own striped shower curtain!
What do you think?
Want to know the best part? No, it’s not that now the shower curtain is the exact length I want it to be. No, it’s not that the stripes are now the perfect shade of yellow.
The best part is the PRICE!
Full Sheet: $8
Fabric Paint: $12
Frog Tape: Leftover from this project
Total: $20
Compared to $39.00 at West Elm? I think I won!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little tutorial. Don’t ever think you have to settle for pre-made, high-priced items if there’s any chance you can make them yourself!
Thank you sooo much for reading and come back tomorrow for the master closet reveal!
Linking to:
Newbie Party at Debbiedoo’s
