We don't spend a lot of money for decorating around our home, but we do like to make things look nice when we can.  Today I'm going to share with you the curtains I put together for my son's bedroom using the top fitted sheet of his new bedding set.  It helps if you own a sewing machine, but it's not completely necessary as there is not a lot of sewing to be done, and you can stitch up the hems with a needle and thread.  It will take a little bit longer, but it will work perfectly fine.

Bedroom Curtains

This idea will probably work best for a child's bedroom but you could do the same for an adult's bedroom if you aren't too picky. I don't know about you, but for my family we rarely use the top flat sheet that typically comes with bedding sets. What I've done in the past is to use that top flat sheet to make curtains to match the bedroom theme. Often the bedding set will also come with a ruffle to go around the box spring and we rarely use those either, so that becomes a decorated ruffle across the top.

First off you'll need to have an idea of the window are you are planning to cover. In my son's bedroom he has only one tall window and the twin flat sheet covered it nicely. Standard twin sheets measure 66″x 96″. You'll want the curtain to be larger than the window itself, so that the curtain drapes nicely. It doesn't have to be a whole lot wider than the window, but you want to make sure it will cover the window area.

Okay, so now let's get to work.  The top part of the sheet which you usually place up by the pillows usually has more decoration, so that will be the bottom part of your curtain.

1. Fold the flat sheet in half length-wise and cut exactly in half.
2. At the top part of the two pieces of the flat sheet you will want to fold it over a few inches and sew in a hem. This is where you will insert the curtain rod.
3. At the inner edges where you cut the curtain in half, sew a hem.
4. It helps if you use your iron to press the seams down before sewing the hem.

If your bedding set came with a bedskirt, and in fact this is one of the criteria you should look for when buying a new bedding set, if you are planning to use the flat sheet for curtains – you can use the bedding skirt for the top ruffle on the curtain.  The one in the picture above was a solid piece connected all the way around but sewed to a transparent flimsy piece of fabric which goes in between the mattress and box spring.

For the ruffle at top you will need to have double the length of the width.  For example, if the curtains are 20 inches, the material for your ruffle needs to be 40 inches.  Here's how to prepare and sew the ruffle:

1. Remove the flimsy piece of material which usually tucks in between the mattress and box spring so that you have one long strip of material.
2. The bottom strip of the material will be the bottom part of the ruffle (already hemmed!)
3. At the top of the strip of material you will need to sew two hems.  Fold the material over (wrong side to wrong side) and leaving about two inches for the very top part of the ruffle, sew the first hem along the entire length.  Remember this is going to be bunched up into ruffles so no one is going to see your hand stitched hem if you don't have a machine.
4. Go down about two more inches and make another hem. This is where you will insert the curtain rod to hang the curtain.

If you are feeling extra ambitious, use some of the material from the bedskirt to make a tie back for the curtains.  You'll need a hook at the side of the curtains to hold the tie backs.  The tie backs can be as easy as taking a piece of material 12 inches by 4 inches, folding in half, sewing a hem on the side and bottom (material turned inside out), then turn right side out and make another hem at the remaining edge.  I actually put a buttonhole into these tie backs, but you don't have to get that fancy.  Just tie the tie back in a loose knot and hook over the drapery tieback.

Tomorrow I'll show you what I did for my kitchen curtain.