DIY Ruffle Curtains

Well, only a few more weeks until my due date! I thought I would use them to reveal some of the DIY projects I worked on in the nursery. We are obviously trying to save as much money as we can, so this experience reminded me of our wedding...DIY projects galore.

One of the things I finished up just before Christmas were the curtains. When I thought about curtains for our baby girl's room, I wanted something pretty and feminine. I decided on ruffle curtains and I loved Pottery Barn's version:

But at almost $100 a panel, I was not feeling it. Instead, I started trolling the internet for a DIY version...and boy did I find one! I was excited to discover I could make my own ruffle curtains for $10 a panel. Um...yes please. I used this tutorial and it was pretty easy to follow...but also very time consuming for this beginner. It basically consisted of buying two twin flat sheets from Walmart at $5 a piece. That is for one panel, so it ended up costing me $20 total to make two panels for the nursery. MUCH more desirable than $200! I wanted them to be an off white instead of a true white, and thankfully the sheets came in just the right color (ok, truthfully they are a tad too yellow, but I'm not gonna complain).

I won't go through the whole process, you can follow the tutorial I linked for that, but just be prepared for a lot of work. I think the first panel took me around 8 hours, and the second one about half that (it's easier once you get the hang of it). Still, I'm pleased with how they turned out (not perfect, but not too shabby) and REALLY pleased with how much money we were able to save. Here is the final result...and excuse the horrible coloring, it's such a hard room to photograph!

And there is a sneak peek at the next tutorial coming up...a fabric pouf!