DIY Painted Backtab Curtains

Yesterday I made curtains for my boys' room. Panels with big wide stripes and hidden back tabs. I'm really happy with them even though they took me all day - that was my fault, not the poor curtains'. I must have forgotten my coffee or something.

I used sheets again, because y'all know I can't turn down a $5 curtain opportunity. I'm cheap like that. I was also on a time crunch, because two curtains laid out end to end in my dining room take up 99% of the usable floorspace, which meant that all pets and children were restricted to half the house (the "boring half," naturally) while I got my paint on. I admit, I might have thought that one through a little better. Hindsight is 20/20, right?

First I made curtains from the sheets - I followed this great no sew backtab curtain tutorial at Design a la Mod, with just a couple of tweaks:

1. First I folded over the extra length that I wouldn't need and attached the backtabs to that section, then finally I sewed the entire folded section in place (following the existing stitch line and going over the iron-on hem tape at the bottom for some extra strength). I attached the hem tape to this folded-over section so there would be less chance of it showing through since the sheet fabric is thin.




2. Instead of attaching the iron-on hem tape at both the top and bottom as in the original tutorial, I used velcro on the top section so that I could "open" my curtains because my boys' new curtain rods are made of galvanized piping. Once you screw all the pieces of pipe together it's solid and has to be entirely removed from the wall to add or remove traditional curtains -- and that wasn't going to happen.


I promise the original tutorial is much easier to understand, so make sure to click over there if you want to make some normal backtab curtains!

Once I finished making the curtains, it was time to lay them out and paint. I taped 9" lines on them and then realized I didn't have a foam roller. Like I said, maybe I forgot my coffee yesterday morning. To the store we went.

Back from the store and new roller in hand, I starting painting with scads of acrylic craft paint and fabric medium. I went with regular craft paint since I had heard that using regular wall paint (even with fabric medium) could result in crunchy curtains, and fabric medium seems to be "designed" for the regular craft paint. News flash: mine are still a tad crunchy. Oh well! I might sand them lightly to soften them up.

Regardless of what paint you choose, buy more than you think you'll need; fabric sucks it right up. I used 9 bottles of craft paint and 4 small bottles of fabric medium and that was cutting it close. Did I mention that I had to run to Michael's midway through painting to buy more? I am a super planner, guys. Who wants me to plan their wedding? Ha!

The best part of all my poor planning? My  prisoners children were forced lucky enough to have a picnic for dinner! A... um... front room floor picnic! On plastic Christmas plates I forgot to put away! Thirty minutes before bedtime! Go me!

Okay, so it wasn't my smoothest project ever, but now that it's over I'm really happy to have these curtains up even though my 6 year old dubbed them "weird." Pfft. What does he know? I think they look great!

So does Robin over there. We think they look great. Holy cool curtains, Batman!

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