A Quick And Easy Way To Sew Curtain Panels

Since we have lived in the 1820, I have always hung curtains on the back porch. I didn’t hang them to block the afternoon sun or for privacy, but merely for looks. You know, homey up the place. The original curtains were from IKEA and they worked great. However, they were white(ish) and would get filthy rather quickly. They hung for 8 years until they had seen the washer and the outdoor dirt enough. In the interim I hung some gauzy things that lasted about 5 minutes and then I got the Ballard Design catalog and started dreaming. Here is the easy way to sew curtain panels.

Although beautiful, their ready made curtains are a little tooooooo pricey to hang on our back porch, but it’s the black and cream stripes that had me at hello. And you know me – Miss Budget Girl – needed a lower price on the fabric, and low and behold IKEA had the exact stripe, cotton twill fabric that I needed. And at $7.99 a yard, well, you can’t beat that.

As I got a D in the sewing unit of Home Ec (Mrs. Bonk was the worst), I have always steered the opposite direction of a sewing machine. Within the past couple years, I decided to learn and realized that if I can just sew straight lines, I’m good. So, I turned to trusted YouTube for a curtain sewing tutorial and I landed on a young gal that taught me everything I needed to know about sewing a basic curtain panel, in about 4 minutes. Thumbs up.

What I had in mind were curtain panels; something that hung straight down, no gathering, and a no-center curtain rod. Found said rods at Walmart for $3 and change (total side note – I’m not a firm believer in spending a lot on curtain rods to begin with, especially when there will be beautiful curtains covering them up. I mean really, what’s the point?!).

I had eight panels to sew and it took me a long day to sew them, but I got them sewn and hung and I got that Ballard Design look I was going for. One day, I’ll learn how to sew curtains with a liner and backing and pleats and all jazzy curtain stuff, but for now, these panels fit the porch to a T.