Ta Da! The curtains are done. The rod gave me fits though. After I finished the curtains, I hung them on the rod and, while arranging the folds, gave it a bit too much of a tug. And pulled one entire support out of the wall. Four days later, after much spackle and sanding, I put it up again. But since I was impatient to show it to you, I put it in the same place I’d just patched. Brilliant. So it stayed up long enough to post the pictures but that’s about it. I’m going to move the brackets out an inch, but I promise not to bore you with those details. In the meantime, here’s how I got the curtains done…

You saw the picture of the fabric in the first Guest Room post. I decided I didn’t want the curtains to go all the way to the floor here. The room is just too small. And I did want them lined. Also, I like a traditional look, but I didn’t want to do the full pleating thing. I found a great tutorial at View Along the Way. It’s pretty clear she used a lighter weight lining than I did though. There’s a drape to hers that didn’t quite happen with mine. Not until I did a little coaxing. The only major change I made to the guidelines from this site was to use a hemming stitch on my sewing machine rather than a straight stitch. I didn’t want the horizontal line of stitching to conflict with the vertical line of the fabric.

Because I had to take the rod off the brackets while I did the patching anyway, I hung the whole kit-and-kaboodle up on my open bi-fold doors.

I steamed the dickens out of them, carefully arranged the folds, and tied them loosely with strips of muslin. I left them there for about 4 days. Overkill, I expect, but then, the wall wasn’t ready for them anyway. Regardless of how long your curtains are – mine are 70″ from top to bottom – it’s still a good idea to dress your curtains.

I hung them 7″ above the top of the window and 6″ from either side. That will be moved out to 7″ on the sides, but you wont have to watch me go through that part. And you won’t be able to tell when they’re finally hung properly either.

Here we are. I think they look great. Just picture them against a warm yellow wall. You’ll have to wait a month or two for the painting to happen, but it’ll be worth it.