DIY Extra Long Horizontal Stripe Curtains

DIY striped curtain

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I DIYed extra long horizontal stripe curtains.

Materials:

– 57″ x 118″ Ikea Ritva Curtain panels ($34.99/pair!)
– Seam tape (cheaper if bought by the yard and cut into thin strips)
– Colored cotton fabric (8 yards for this plan)
– Matching thread
– towel
– iron
– sewing machine
– fabric shears
– pinking shears

Helpful Tools

– rotary cutting mat
– rotary cutter with pinking blade
– yard stick or metal ruler
– mom that rocks at sewing, cutting, and measuring

The Plan

I’m a very novice sewer and not a very confident measurer when it comes to sewing projects, so there was plenty of up-front sketches and even an InDesign layout of my desired curtains. I have to SEE it, full scale.

My plan was to attach grey fabric stripes to the Ikea curtains. There would be a 6 inch white space at the top, then six 11 inch stripes (spaced 6 inches apart), meaning I needed eight yards of grey fabric. I found some beautiful heather grey fabric on sale, and bonus, it was 58 inches wide, meaning I saved a little time and $$ using the bolt width for my stripe length.

Did that make any sense?

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The Steps

1. I measured, trimmed, and hemmed the curtains from 118″ to 111″ to fit Ethan’s windows, leaving them just skimming the floor. I had the hardware already hanging so I could actually hang one curtain and mark exactly how long I needed it.

2. We ironed the curtains to make them nice and flat. This took a loooooong time with the extra long curtains.

3. Go to work on the stripes. Make it easier by keeping the fabric folded and using a rotary cutter to slice straight lines through the layers of fabric. The result should be perfectly straight, 12 inch stripes.

**TIP: If you have fabric that easily frays, like ours, get a pinking blade for your rotary cutter. This will cut down on the stringy edges while assembling the curtains.

4. The next step was pretty tedious. We decided to use seam tape to secure AND hem the stripes at the same time. It meant ironing down a 1/2 inch hem on each raw edge of each stripe (leaving our finished stripes at 11 inches), then using the seam tape to secure the stripe to the curtain. We did it all at once, right there on the ironing board. We didn’t draw lines for placement of the stripes, just constantly measured as we glued down the stripes. A towel helped protect the fabric.

5. We stitched across the top and bottom of each stripe with grey thread to fully secure them to the curtain. We were a little nervous about the fabric moving around, but the hem tape kept it nice and straight. No pins needed.

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The end result was exactly what I’d pictured. A bold yet simple statement for the enormous turret windows in Ethan’s room. They really add so much depth to the space! I can’t believe the difference.