Recently, as I have been unpacking and moving things into our new home, I have been rediscovering things I loved that I had stored away in my LA apartment due to lack of space. One of those rediscovered gems was a metallic gold printed wall tapestry I had purchased from Urban Outfitters a few years ago. I wasn't sure if it had a place on our wall in the house and then I realized I could easily turn it into curtains for our guest room!
This was one of the easiest projects I have ever done. Because the edges were already finished with 1/2" seams, this was simple cut, sew, hang job. If you have an old tapestry with no wall space to call home, may I suggest you get after this little project? Took me about 2 hours to complete. I kid you not.
LET'S DO THIS!
WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
- Wall Tapestry (that is slightly bigger than the window you are wanting to cover)
- Sewing thread to match your fabric
- Sharp scissors
- Measuring tape
- Straight pins
- Sewing machine
STEP 1: Measure the fabric. My tapestry was 84 x 102 and I wanted to cover two windows. Because the curtains would be more "decorative" than functional I decided to make 3 panels, 1 for either side of the window and 1 for the middle. This meant I would need 3 pieces that measured 28 x 102". Using a tape measure with the tapestry spread perfectly flat on the wood floors, I carefully measured the width of each panel, marking the line with pencil.
STEP 2: Cut. Using super sharp scissors, fabric succors if you have them, carefully cut along the pencil line. I taped down the fabric to the floor with masking tape so it would not move as I cut. Repeat this step until you have three equally cut panels.
STEP 3: Sew it up! Since all four edges of the tapestry had a 1/2" stitched seam already I wanted to match that on all the raw edges I had just cut. I folded the edges of the fabric over 1/2" and used straight pins to hold in place. Using the sewing machine, stitch up all the pinned edges, carefully pulling out the pins as you go, and back-stitching at beginning and end of seam to secure.
STEP 4: Sew the curtain rod pocket. The rod I chose for the curtains was 3/4" thick. To make sure the panels could slide freely across the rod I decided on a 2" tall rod pocket. On all 3 curtain panels I carefully measured 2" down from the top of the panel and folded it over to the back side, pinning all along the finished edge. Once all 3 panels were pinned I sewed a straight seam along the pin line, back-stitching at beginning and end of seam to secure.
STEP 5: Show them off! Because I am ultimately lazy and hate using an iron, I threw the finished panels in our dryer on a wrinkle release cycle. Once they were good to go, I slid the finished curtains onto the rods and hung those bad boys up!
Because I know I skimmed over a few details, or assumed you already knew how to accurately measure, cut, and sew fabric (which you may not) here is an awesome post I found about making curtains that covers every single detail.
If you use this DIY to turn a retired tapestry into seriously rad curtains, show me on social media by tagging @havenbythebae and #havenprojects! Have Fun!! xx