Make Blackout Lined Curtains

4 Parts:

Steps

Video: Make Blackout Lined Curtains

Tips and Suggestions

Comments

I would like to thank Rose Smith for the awesome video on how to DIY Make Blackout Lined Curtains. I organized it into a wiki for anyone with a hearing impairment, or for those who just prefer to read the steps. Hope you enjoy it. :)

1. 1
   Before you can make lined curtains, you need to know how much fabric to buy, and also what size to make your curtains

   .

   The idea is that you will have a gather across the top of the curtain and that will give the curtains a bit of fullness so they don't appear to be stretched across the window. The rule of thumb is to buy enough fabric to have the curtain one and a half times the width that you need for the window, so for example if the window is 6 ft wide, you'd want each curtain to cover 3ft, and so you'd want to buy about 1 1/2 times as much fabric, so for 3ft of curtains you'd have a width of about 4 1/2 ft and that would mean you could gather it so you would have quite a nice full curtain. Now obviously it can vary if your fabric happens to be a bit wider, or a bit shorter, go on with that because that just makes your curtains may be a little bit fuller or a little less full.

   

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
2. 2
   That's the measurements for the curtain itself, the length obviously is just from the curtain track down to however far you want the curtain to go

   .

   

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
3. 3
   The lining fabric is slightly different because what you want for the curtain fabric to fold back over on itself and then the lining to start because that gives you confidence that the lining will not appear when the curtains are drawn, all you want to see is this curtain fabric and not the lining fabric

   .

   So the way to do this is to make your lining fabric about 2 or 3 inches shorter than the width of the curtain fabric.

   

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
4. 4
   I have stated on the clip earlier that the length of the curtain is just from the track to however far down far you want them

   .

   That's true if you have something like this where there is no pattern so it doesn't matter where you start, you're going to have the same look for the left-hand and the right-hand curtain. There is a difference if you've got a pattern in the fabric.

   

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
5. 5
   For this fabric, the pattern repeat is from this purple circle to the other down purple circle, so you'd measure it from the top of the circle to the top of the other purple circle

   .

   That's the amount that you may have to vary the right-hand curtain from the left-hand curtain, to be sure that you get the right and the left curtains matching, now this is only a matter of inches so it's not too much of an issue when you're buying fabric.

   

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
6. 6
   But if you have a curtain fabric like this, there is quite a large pattern on it then you would need to measure

   .

   

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
7. 7
   The pattern is from the top of that brown line

   .

   

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
8. 8
   Down to the next top brown line

   .

   

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
9. 9
   So you have to measure from this point

   .

   

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
10. 10
    To this point

    .

    And you'd have to buy all of that amount one complete repeat extra fabric so you could adjust the right and left curtains to start at exactly at the same point as each other before you sew the lining to them.

    

    Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
11. 11
    I think that will cover how to measure the fabric and what you need to buy, and now we can move into sewing the lining and the curtain together

    .

    I will cover the top in a different video, the tape that goes on the top, or you can have various different other fixings and I'll do that as a separate item.

    

    Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
12. 12
    I'll begin by sewing the curtain fabric and the lining together with right sides together and I've sewn up just the two side seems

    .

    

    Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
13. 13
    Flip the fabric over so that you've got the right side out

    .

    

    Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
14. 14
    If You spread that out across the width, you can see that the curtain fabric itself is longer than the lining, and there is an overlap which enters to the back side of the curtain, and this is done so that the lining doesn't show out to the front

    .

    

    Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
15. 15
    Now, I can pin all the way up here to make sure I have exactly the same measure from the lining to the edge of the curtain all the way up, now the size of the curtain is done

    .

    

    Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
16. 16
    I will turn it back to get the right sides together again, and I marked the center of both and pin them together at the center and then smooth out towered each side

    .

    

    Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
17. 17
    When I turn these back to go right sides together again, I've got this flap at each end which is where the curtain fabric was longer that the lining fabric

    .

    

    Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
18. 18
    Next thing to do is to run a line of stitching right across the top of the curtain

    .

    

    Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
19. 19
    I want to stitch the curtains together, so I'll stitch right across the entire width of the curtain

    .

    

    Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
20. 20
    You can see how the top looks

    .

    

    Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
21. 21
    I've got the curtain fabric on that side

    .

    

    Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
22. 22
    I've got the lining here, and the route seems there inside that seam

    .

    

    Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
23. 23
    Here, I've got that edging where the curtain fabric was slightly longer so it could fold back to join the lining

    .

    

    Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
24. 24
    This lining is very close weave because I have used blackout curtain lining

    .

    

    Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
25. 25
    To hem the curtains you can just turn the curtain fabric over and have it folded across the top of the lining, and slips it across there not to capturing the underneath fabric

    .

    

    Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
26. 26
    If the fabric turned over like that, you'd want to be sure to catch only this bit of lining here, so nothing shows through on the far side

    .

    

    Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
27. 27
    These curtains were made Hampton slightly different fashion, the lining has been hand separately, that's just been a machine stitched across to be about an inch shorter than the main curtain

    

    Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
28. 28
    The outer curtain fabric itself has been turned over separately and has been slips stitched across there

    .

    

    Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
29. 29
    Either ways acceptable, it depends a bit on how much time you've got and which finish you prefer

    .

    

    Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help

• To make these a No Sew Project you can use Fabric Glue, Hemming Tape or Glue Gun. Test a small patch of fabric first to make sure that the glue does not bleed through and make a stain.
• For extra insulation using a shower curtain will provide better blockage of cold air in the winter months and heat in the summer months. You can just use a white or clear plastic shower curtain or pick one with a design that matches your fabric. The design will be seen from the street so this a way to provide visual interest when the curtains are closed. Otherwise with a clear shower curtain you can leave it plain or in between the layers of the tutorial method presented in the video.

If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.

Comments