DIY Ruffled Curtains

I've been wanting to make small changes to our kitchen, and shabby ruffled curtains were just the right touch!  Kind of happy with how these bad boys came out.  I mean, I am no seamstress.  Darts are what I throw at a board in the local pub and I still haven't figured out where that third thread comes from, somewhere in the depths of the bobbin.  It's such a mystery to me.

But, I've seen the rage of ruffles (yes, it's a thing) and I've been intrigued with using painter's cloth for a project, so I broke down and dug the sewing machine out of the bowels of the basement.  And I'm glad I did.  :)  Although my curtains are quite different than theirs, I have to credit two blogs for giving me the inspiration:  The Shabby Creek Cottage and Thistlewood Farm.  Check out both links if you can, as they are full of good information.

So, the first step was to head to my local handy, dandy Lowes and pick up a package of the thinnest painter's drop cloths they had.  I opted for the 6'X9' 8oz. cloth, thinking it might be enough (turns out I needed a little more, so I had to buy another package).  I made sure to wash and dry them before using.

Next, I measured the width of my windows and decided on the length I wanted the valances.  I also knew that I wanted three ruffles, and knew that each ruffle needed to overlap the other by 2".  Also, as you can imagine, your ruffle strips needs to be 4X than the measured width of your window, as you "lose" so much fabric in the ruffling.  Since I'm not a girl about exact measurements (ha!), I decided to take the long end of the painter's cloth (9') and cut them into 6" wide strips hoping they would be long enough.  Since I am making lazy shabby curtains, I am leaving all the ends frayed and not creating a hem.

Now, I don't have one of those fancy, dancy ruffler feet for my machine, so I just winged it:  I folded over the fabric every 1/2" to 1 1/2", varying it so it wouldn't look so uniform.  I used a simple long, straight stitch.  (The hem you see is the original edge of the painter's cloth.)

When I was finished, this is what it looked like:

Now, after making my three ruffled strips, you need something to stitch them to.  So I measured the curtain size I wanted (width and length of the curtain) and cut a piece of painter's cloth that exact size.  I pinned my first strip, making sure the bottom of my ruffle matched the bottom of the back fabric, and stitched it on, going across the same stitch I made making the ruffles.

After stitching the first strip on, I then trimmed any excess of the ends (turns out using the 9' width worked out perfectly).  I then attached the second strip, overlapping by 2".  The final strip was stitched right at the top.  I knew I wanted to use black clips on the curtains (due to the black chairs in the kitchen), so I just clipped and hung away!

                          

 The kitchen door window was a bit smaller, so I sized down the ruffles.

Overall, I'm very happy with the curtains.  My husband does wish I had hemmed the edges, but he is not on the same side of shabby that I am.   :)

Have a shabby, ruffled day!

Debbie 

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