Drapes to spice up a toddler’s room

I recently posted a tutorial for making a resusable bag for a toddler, which I said was my first sewing project for which I did not use a pattern or other online help. But I realized, that there have been a couple of other projects I successfully completed before as well!

We recently moved into a new house (ok, not so recent…it was last July!) and the drapes in all the rooms are just dreadful.  They were particularly bad in R’s room…as you can see below, they looked like they came from an old, cheesy motel.

Well, I have been wanting to re-do her room and make it more fun, but have been feeling overwhelmed with the project, since EVERYTHING needs to be redone, including all the paint…and some of the plaster.  So, I decided to start with the drapes – since that is such a large part of the room.

As usual, this was a last minute decision.  So I decided to use fabric I already had, and not stress about making it perfect.  I just wanted to make something quick that would brighten up the room, and that I wouldn’t feel bad about changing later once I had my whole room “plan” laid out.  (that has yet to happen, by the way)  Luckily, I had just bought this cute home decor fabric on clearance from Jo-Ann’s – I think it was like $2.50 a yard!

Then I enlisted my little helper to “measure and cut” the fabric.

=0]

I didn’t have enough fabric to make the correct length of the drapes, so I used a matching solid color to make a strip in the middle.

Once everything was all cut…

…and my helper was done with her part…

I simply sewed the plain green strip to the main fabric pieces (top and bottom), and then hemmed the sides and bottom of each drape.  To hem them, I just turned the edges in 1/4 inch and then again another 1/2 inch and sewed a straight stitch down each side.  Like I said – I like to keep things SIMPLE.  I didn’t even iron them first because I was rushing to get the sewing done before she woke up from her nap.

In R’s room, I hope to take down the existing box for the curtain attachments and put up a simple rod   – but that will come later.  For now, I was able to just use the existing hooks and poke them through the fabric on top.  That’s it.  I left the top unsewn, and finished, and it is working fine!

One adjustment I did have to make, was I bought plain white curtains from Target, hemmed them to the same length, and added those behind my homemade drapes, so that they wouldn’t be sooo see through.  I also sewed a short strip of ribbon to each side of the curtains so I could tie them up and bring more light in.

R’s reaction?  “OOOOH! Polka Dots!!!!  I like polka dots!”

Success!