DIY Back Tab Curtains (Way over due!)

Since we bought our house in 2010 I'm always on the hunt for ideas to make the house ours, there were curtains, rugs and other random items left over when we moved in. One thing that has been driving me insane for the last two years is the curtains. They are the original curtains were from when the house was built in 1962 and if anyone has been in a 60s house then you know that all of the curtains are draw string or track curtains, and they are like fourty inches thick! Okay not fourty inches, but like seriously thick! Now the curtains were not an ugly color they were a nice creamy white so they could stay for just a little while.

Soo sixties... gag.

Do you know how expensive curtains are AND how ugly they are?! Neither did I, so a little while ended up being over two years, oh mind you this is only the living room we're talking about here! All the curtains are ugly.

So anyway, thanks to Pinterest and its amazing collection of blogs I found a tutorial for curtains that made sense to someone who only used a sewing machine to sew little pillows when my mom-mom ( means grandmother) had extra fabric and fluff! The blog View Along the Way is where I found the best turorial for the curtains! She did a fabulous job explaining each step with great pictures so if mine isn't doing the job check out her blog! And scroll on down if you'd like to see mine :-)

First things first, lay out your fabric and cut it to your desired length, always cut extra for your hems in this case I cut an extra 8". My desired length was 75" so I cut 83". Width shouldn't matter, if you are doing a large bay window like I did your going to need more than two panels, unless you want to pay out the wazoo for custom curtains. I did a total of four panels.

Lay on a flat large area, hard floors work best!

Once you have your fabric the size you want it then its time to hem the fabric starting with what will be the bottom of your curtain. I hemed my curtains 3 inches at the bottom. So fold your fabric 3 inches, press, fold another 3 inches, press and pin!

**STOP! If you don't have your iron on you better go plug that sucker in, a hem is not a hem unless it is pressed!**

See hardwood floor = no need for an ironing board!

Trusty pumpkin pin cushion!

Ok now you've hopfully sewn a perfectly straight line... just kidding! Mine was far from straight but seriously who is going to inspect the hem? No one.

Onto the lining! For the length: Add 2 1/2 inches to your finished length, ie. If your finished curtain is going to be 76 inches you want to cut your lining to 78.5". For the width: Subtract 6 inces from the width of your curtain fabric. I didn't make any cuts to the fabric for the width so my lining would be 49" most fabric will be 55" wide.

I was folding mine in half to cut the width, it was just easier with the space I had.

 *View Along the Way says it best, I strongly urge you to jump over there and just glance over her diagram on sizes!*

Once your lining is cut you want to hem the bottom of your lining. I hemed my lining at 1.5" Which is half the size of my curtain hem. You want to fold 1.5" and press. Fold another 1.5" and press again. Then again you pin and sew!

Pin you lining good! I used regular lining I did not want black out.

Once your lining is hemmed your next step is sewing the lining to the panel. Which is much easier than you'd think!

Lay your fabric flat with your pattern facing up and lay the lining face down. Line up one of the sides of completely and pin, sew along that line.

Now you've sew one side of your curtain. Lay the curtain back out and line up the other side. Your fabric will look a little bunched up but don't panic it will look good once your turn it inside out!

Lining up the second side.

Once you've sewn both sides of your curtain you can turn the curtain right side out.

Now give yourself a round of applause and a glass of wine or a piece of chocolate for making two pieces of fabric turn into a curtain! YAY!!!

Last step is creating the tabs!

Lay the curtain flat so there is an even amount of patterned fabric on  each side.

Lay your curtain down so that the lining is facing you and flatten the curtain out so you have an even amount of patterned fabric on each side of the curtain. Then fold the top of your curtain down 1" and iron. (Now if you want it to be super pretty you can fold another inch and iron again then pin but I didn't) So instead of folding twice to make the back look pretty I only folded it once then I added the tabs. I used Bias Tape but you can use ribbon too.

Start at the end and work your way down as evenly as possible 

 Pin.

Pin the tabs

Sew a line across the top, this will close the top seam and sew the tabs to the top of the curtain. After the top line is sewn your going to go to each tab and sew the bottom. Sew, reverse, sew for each tab.

Sew the bottom of the tabs. 

Guess what... YOUR DONE!

Pat yourself on the back, go hang those sexy curtains up, grab a cocktail, a snack and lay back and take a look at your handy work! Go you!!

 Snazzy ehh!? I love them and I can't wait until the paneling in this house is GONE!

Well that's all for now, I hope everyone enjoyed this extremely long tutorial and I would love to see your curtains if you tried to make any! Comment if you have any questions :)

Brittni

p.s. I will try to keep up as best I can, I've already slacked :-/