Burlap Ruffled Curtains

I have a slight obsession with burlap. You will probably realize it after I post my next few projects. They all contain burlap somewhere. Our living room was in dire need of some curtains. The sun shines straight  in and the windows face the street. This is what I came up with. The picture below doesn't do the curtains justice (especially since the pillows aren't even straight on the sofa). I will be posting another picture soon. I just don't have one at the moment!

Supplies:

Plain curtains

Burlap

Sewing machine & supplies

I cheated and bought already made curtains at Goodwill and just added to them. Creating the fun girlie curtains I have now. They only cost $5. I couldn't have bought fabric for that cheap. 

This is what the plain curtains look like. When I first came up with the idea I was just going to put ruffles on the bottom.  This curtain had a not so attractive burgandy band at the top so I decided to put a ruffle at the top also to cover the band.

1. Take the burlap and cut it into six strips. Four larger ones for the bottom ruffles and two smaller ones for the top ruffle. Cut the strips twice as long as the horizontal length of the curtain. To make good ruffles you need the fabric to be double the length.

2. Take each one of the strips and hem them on both sides.

3. To create the small ruffle take each of the hemmed small strips and sew a line right through the middle of the strip.

4. Next, to get the fabric to ruffle, pull the top string from the stitch down the middle srunching the fabric   forming a ruffle. You can work from both sides of the strip. Pull from both sides until you have created a ruffle that is the same length as the curtain. 

5. Then, take the ruffle and place it on top of the curtain. I placed mine so that the middle of the ruffle was right on top of the burgandy strip. Pin the ruffle in place and sew down the middle to attach the ruffle to the curtain. 

6. To make the bottom ruffles I took the hemmed bottom strips and stitch another line right under the hemmed line. I pulled one of the strings from the stitch on both sides to form the ruffle. 

My cat Michigan always has to be in the middle of things. I named her after the University not the state.

7. Finally, I pinned both of the bottom ruffles onto the curtain one at a time and sewed them to the curtain very close to the top (not in the middle like the top ruffle). 

8. Repeat for the second curtain.

This post is a little confusing but it is actually really easy. If you have any questions about how to complete the project, feel free to email me at ashtonscraftycreations@gmail.com

This post is dedicated to a dear friend Brittni. She was so kind and designed the layout, header and the button for my blog. My blog would look VERY rough if it wasn't for her! 

This is us after our graduation. Brittni is blonde in the pink. 

She also has a blog. Check her out at PR Adventures of a Southern Belle!