Drapes Refreshed!

A while ago I bought custom white canvas drapes with privacy lining for my daughter's bedroom from Smith and Noble. At the time I wasn't aware of the wide array of possibilities for making your own awesome drapes, so I bought these custom drapes for a pretty, pretty penny. They were window-length and double the width of the window. Oooh la la, fancy pants. However, with the privacy lining, this made for extremely heavy drapes. Every time we tried to close them, two or three of the hooks came out of the drapery rings and we were left with this:

It's hard to tell from the picture, but the right panel is drooping sadly off it's drapery rings. 

I really liked the look of the double-width because when we could get them closed, they still looked full and dramatic. Ooh la la, again. But ultimately, ease-of-use won out and I put the drapes in storage and replaced them with cheapo privacy shades from Home Depot. I won't go into the buyer's remorse regret I chided myself with for several months. Anyway. I liked the simplicity of the shades by themselves for a while, but I wanted to add interest and a little femininity. This is, after all, my daughter's room. Lately I've been trying to use what I have in the house instead of buying new stuff, so pulled the old drapes out to see what I could do with them.

I knew the curtain rod had to be more substantial, so I bought an inexpensive, thicker curtain rod from Target and spray-painted it white. The difference was small but noticeable. I ended up using the same drapery rings that went with the original PBTeen Curtain Rod, even though they are off-white, because I don't mind mixing my whites. 

I also knew I wanted the drapes to be floor length. I love the color-blocking trend that we've been seeing all over the place for the past year, ever since I saw these Jill Sander pieces in her Spring 2011 show. So I decided to use this as my inspiration and add bright-colored fabric to the bottom of these drapes. I was nervous, but I think the end result is great:

I think this is a great way to create floor-length drapes if you have really tall ceilings like we do. 96" drapes are still about 6 inches from our floor when hung above the window as pictured. The longer 108" drapes are too long, way more expensive, and harder to find. 

Here is how I did it:

I had this watermelon fabric in my fabric cupboard and I knew I wanted to use it. I also plan to use it to make headboards for both my girls when they eventually share a room. When I laid out the giant, double-width drape I knew I would not have enough fabric for this project and the drapes. I decided to use just one of the double-width panels cut in half. Since I knew each panel was made up of two standard-width panels sewn together, I figured this would be as easy as ripping the seam.

I spread the panel out seam-up over my ironing board and began ripping the seams of both the privacy lining and the canvas with my seam ripper. After a while, I realized it would just be faster to cut the existing seam right below the stitching to get a relatively straight line and to avoid having to pull out all those nylon threads.

The top was a big of a challenge, but I just continued to cut along the seams until the panels were separated.

The next step was to hang the curtains and determine how much fabric I needed to add to the bottom.
I safety pinned the fabric at different levels on the drapes until I had the right proportion. I used the Rule of Thirds, loosely, and placed the pink fabric so that it would make up, more or less, the bottom third of the drape.

I marked the level with a pencil. Next, Stitch Witching. Stitch Witchery is super-awesome, super-foolproof and super easy to use. All you need is an iron with a steam setting. And it's not really permanent. If you make a mistake, you can just rip it up. Perfect! I love this stuff. I stitch-witched the top and bottom of the pink fabric to create clean hems.

 

Then I carefully placed the pink fabric over my pencil marks on the canvas panel and stitch-witched it to the panel. Next, I stitch-witched hems on the raw sides of the canvas panels that I had separated. This was challenging, too, but if you're adding fabric to single panel store-bought drapes, you won't have to do this.

I'm so pleased with how it turned out, and in a rare moment of domestic productivity, I actually completed both drapes in two days! What?! I once stitch-witched a hem in one panel to adjust the length and left the other one unhemmed for over a year. And by "once" I mean last year.

Love,

Katherine