No Sew Curtain Panels.

Something about having a baby makes me want to entirely redo my house. Like immediately. Urgently. Like somehow I'm supposed to have it perfectly designed and constructed and cleaned before the madness of a new child arrives. Some may call it nesting.I call it a sickness.Because only a sick person would attempt to redecorate, organize, clean, and perfect their entire habitat before bearing a child. As if carrying a baby for nine months isn't enough work.Oh well. I can't fight myself. I give in - at least on occasion. First up on the list was re-doing our living room curtains. It'd been awhile since we'd put lipstick on a pig with these curtains back in Alabama and Mama was ready for something prettier - slightly more French - slightly more feminine - slightly nicer. But a quick trip to a local store left me disappointed in my fabric options. Thus, the no sew curtain panel was born. I've made a dozen before for various other windows in our house and so I felt like a veteran as I grabbed a few yards of my favorite fabric and a roll of stitch-witch.Watch out now. I got this. Let the fabric fly.

No Sew Curtain Panels

1. Choose your favorite fabric.

I typically use about 2 1/2 yards per panel, depending on the height of the window. And depending on the width of curtain you desire, sometimes that 2 1/2 yards can be cut in half lengthwise to result in two curtain panels. 

2. Grab a few rolls of Stitch Witchery from your local craft store. 

If I'm using a super light-weight fabric, I'll go for the light-weight stitch witchery. If I'm using something heftier, I'll go for the big daddy (something more like THIS). You can find stitch witchery online HERE.

3. Lay out your fabric and cut to the desired length.

You can be precise and perfect, if you'd like, but we all know that's not my style. I sprawled my fabric out on my semi-clean kitchen floor, measured to the best of my ability, and cut straight across using my Mom's fabric scissors (which used to be really awesome until someone who shall remain nameless tried to use them to cut plastic sheeting). This step took awhile for the poor 'ol scissors. I think it's time to invest in some new ones.As you can see from the picture, I also cut the fabric lengthwise so that each 2 1/2 yard panel actually made two curtains. I wanted a very lightweight and narrow curtain for the living room since we never close the curtains - they're more for decorating and softening the window edges. By cutting the fabric lengthwise, each panel was only roughly 18" wide.See? Two panels! Booya!

4. Set up an ironing board and an iron (with steam or a water-filled spray bottle). 

Once your iron is hot, you can lay the first curtain panel across the ironing board and get an idea of what your seam will look like. I usually fold mine back about 1".

5. Gently lay the stitch witchery in the fold the seam and gently iron.

I find that setting the iron on the seam for about 5-10 seconds, then lifting it up and moving it to the next spot works better than running it back and forth along the seam. Essentially, you'll iron the seam. In doing so, the heat of the iron will melt the stitch witchery into glue. Once it's melted into the glue, the stitch witchery will act as a thread and hold the nice, creased seam in place. It's really hard to hold the stitch witch in place, hold the seam over, use an iron, and take a photograph at the same time. Sorry about failing you in that. The photo below shows what the seam will look like after ironing. Between these folds of fabric is the melted stitch witch:After doing the entire length of the curtain panel, I do the ends:

6. Create a space for the curtain rod.

All that's needed to do this is to fold the top seam over about 4" and stitch witch the very bottom of the fold. That leaves the top open - room enough for a standard curtain rod to slip right through. 

7. Make your husband take down the old curtains.

I just thought this photo turned out particularly funny, so naturally, I had to share. He's so agile. And he also doesn't judge me that my curtains had cobwebs on them. So I love him even more for that.

8. Hang the beauties.

And then realize you need to take a photography class to figure out how to take photos of curtains hanging in a window. That's tough stuff, man.Aren't they lovely? So light. So cheery.We're in the process of getting all of our windows replaced with new ones and framed in which will only add to the wonderfulness of these fresh new curtains. On top of that - I see PAINT in my future! Perhaps not today. But soon.All in all, for four no sew curtain panels that covered our living room windows, the cost was $33 for fabric and stitch witchery. It only took an hour or so of ironing to complete the entire project.Now that's what I'm talking about. It's progress, baby!...and now I'm off to complete the next project. Whatever that may be...