Quick and Easy Lined Curtains

New curtains for a room can make such a difference. But the time (and money) involved can be daunting.

This week I woke up on a mission to change the terrible curtains in the kitchen/dining room (they came with the house). It only took me 1 hour and 3.5 yards of fabric to make three quick and easy lined curtains! With this step by step tutorial, you too can have new curtains in no time.

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As you can see, the curtains before were not all that bad, though they are fairly plain and not at all my style.

And if you can believe it, the kitchen walls were originally bright orange when we moved in!

I’m going to walk you through this process, step by step. So there are a ton of pictures, all with arrows and directions that I hope are clear! BUT, if they aren’t or you have any questions at all, please leave a comment and I will answer every one of them!

Quick and Easy Lined Curtains in an Hour

Step One: Figure out how long you want your new curtains to be.

The original curtains were 23″. In order to replicate that I would need 23″ PLUS another 1″ for the seams.

However, my pattern repeat was only 20″. So in the interest of saving money, my new curtains will be shorter.

Step Two: Lay out your fabric and identify the pattern repeat.

Note: If your fabric doesn’t have an obvious pattern skip to step three. This is only needed if your pattern is very obvious. The previous fabric used would not have needed this method.

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Step Three: Go to the end of the fabric and even out the pattern and make sure that the lines are all straight.

Step Four: Cut as many strips as you need to cover the width of the window.

Calculations For This Look: Window-Width x 1.5 = How many inches of fabric you need.

My windows were 80″ wide so I needed 120″ (80 x 1.5) of my pattern. Since my fabric was 60″ wide, I needed two strip of fabric that I would then sew together.

With right sides together, sew – Take care to line up the pattern in a way that will make the seam unnoticeable.

Do the same thing with your lining.

Step Five: Press seam open in back. This will help the seam blend in as much as possible.

Do the same thing with your lining.

Step Six: Fold over (and press if necessary) the sides and bottom of your curtain by 1/2″ and sew a 1/4″ allowance.

Do the same thing for your lining.

Step Seven: With right sides together, sew lining and pattern together with a 1/2″ seam allowance.

Step Eight: Flip lining to back so that right side of pattern is exposed. Press lining edge slightly behind the pattern edge.

This will keep the lining from sticking up above the curtains once they are hung.

Step Nine: Determine how much ruffle you want above the curtain rod.

You can skip this step if you don’t want a ruffle, but I think at least 1″ would be good.

Remember, the larger the ruffle, the less length you have below the curtain rod.

Sew a straight line from one end of the curtain to the other – using the top edge as a guide.

Step Ten: Move two inches from ruffle line (or top edge if no ruffle is desired). Sew a straight line from one end of the curtain to the other – using the ruffle line as a guide.