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Budget Ideas
How I Made No-Sew Cafe Curtains For My Kitchen
While I have done many DIY projects in my life, I don’t know if I would consider myself an “expert”:) I’m not without skill but I’m also not a DIY influencer (plus, the wonderful Marlee and Gretchen are incredible DIYers and are always here to help me!). Those designers are so freaking talented. So believe me when I tell you that anyone with an iron can make these incredible sweet curtains. In case you missed the last post where I wrote about the final two fabric options, these block print ones may have come in second to my beloved Boro ones. What can I say, I can’t get enough, ha. But I still think they are so sweet and I am about to take you step-by-step on how to make your own. There are infinite places to put a cafe curtain so once you learn the steps, let your imagination go wild:) Let’s get into it.
These curtains were so easy to make. A little too easy. Here’s what you’ll need for fast and dirty cafe curtains:
- Measuring tape
- Fabric
- Fabric scissors
- Iron on seam tape
- Iron and an ironing board
- Cafe pinch rings
- Cafe tension rods
Start by measuring your windows to figure out what size to make your cafe curtains. You may need to experiment with how much or how little fabric to use, depending on the amount of gathering you’d like the curtains to have. Our windows are 30″ across, and I knew I wanted the fabric to stay somewhat pleated even when closed, so we’d have to account for that in the fabric measurement and add to the total length. We cut a few scrap pieces to play around and find our perfect gather amount and then decided on a final width. Because we’re making two panels per window, we landed on each panel being 38″ across, and made sure to leave seam allowance on all sides.
Before cutting each panel, decide on the overall length, where you will hang the curtains from, and take into account the size of the “hem” you want at the top and bottom. For us, about 3″ felt good, like traditional curtains. For the sides of the panels, we allowed for about an inch on each side to give it a clean edge. We cut out our 10 panels (two per window) and gave them a quick pass with the iron. Then we folded over the side seams and pressed those to give them a crisp edge, and repeated the process with the larger top and bottom hems, making sure to fold under the frayed edges.
Once we had a fairly clean hem guide, we used iron on seam tape to hold everything in place. This stuff works great and I’ve used it in a number of other projects. It gets the job done fast and is fairly forgiving if you mess up or need to start again.
You place the tape flat in between your fabric folds and press your iron down to create the bond. We used a high heat setting because our fabric was linen, but follow the instructions on the box and according to your chosen fabric type. Using a damp cloth in-between the fabric and your iron can help with fusing if for some reason the iron isn’t enough to set the bond.
Keep placing the seam tape and pressing your iron across all the edges until you have a finished panel. Is it the most perfect thing you’ve ever seen? No! But your edges won’t fray and because the curtains are designed to stay gathered whether opened or closed, the imperfections will disappear into the folds.
Now you may be wondering where the rod pocket or tabs are to hang the curtains. That’s the beauty of this crazy simple DIY–you don’t need them! Instead, we found these great pinch ring clips from Rejuvenation which grab directly onto the fabric, making it really easy to throw it all together. Our fabric was reallllly thin, and the pinch clips didn’t want to stay gripping, so if you run into the same issue, all you have to do is pull the rings apart some to create more tension before you pinch them onto the fabric.
The best part is these clips are very easily moved. We played around with how many would be needed to create the right amount of pleats and landed on five per panel, spacing each clip out across the fabric evenly. All that’s left is to slide the two panels onto each tension rod, and hang them up!
*Photos by Kaitlin Green
Since you moved the Boro curtains from the living room, am assuming you tried these new curtains in the living room? I think they’d work better there where it’s actually less bright. And brings more white into that space which might make the white panelling work better?
And perhaps tie in with the green of the couches!
Wow, those little clips are great! I can sew but have rarely used fusible tape so I have two questions. Did you prewash your fabric? I know linen can shrink a lot and some printed fabrics have a finish that might make the fusible tape not adhere as well. And secondly, have you washed the finished panels to see how well the fusible hems stay straight and true?
Finally, while I like the Boro better, these still look cute, and surprisingly less busy when they’re closed vs open. Do you plan to keep these and swap them in for a change?
i’ve used hem tape to shorten dresses (usually cotton jersey material – nothing fancy) and one dress lasted 10 years with only a few little areas of hem tape coming loose after many, many washes. i’ve found it to be super durable.
A good rule of thumb when figuring how much fabric you need for curtains is you need 1.5 to 2 times the width of the window. Also, I have learned the hard way to always use a pressing cloth between the fabric and iron when fusing anything to protect the iron.
Any chance you’re selling these curtains? I need 5 sets of cafe curtains and these would go with my green kitchen. I’m in Los Angeles. Email me with pricing if so. :)
From the post photos and today’s Stories, was Gretchen the “seamstress?” She did a good job explaining and demo’ing.
I can’t sew a straight line so this information Is wonderful.
Absolutely LOVE the curtains and print size on the fabric.
excellent choice Em!
These are very sweet! I wonder if you’ll be tempted to hang them up again in the summer, with the long sunny days.
Oh my god.. that’s amazing.. I am from India and planning my new apartment.. This post is going to help me a lot.. Thanks.
Where do you find fabric? I love your material.
It’s all linked. Click the gold colored links, either “the final two fabric options” or the “fabric” in the list of supplies.