Blurred lines: how to make yourself crazy trying to sew striped curtains that kind of remind you of Robin Thicke's suit at the VMAs

Our place desperately needed curtains, both from an aesthetic perspective and because I can feel actual gusts of wind blowing through our less-than-stellar windows on cold days. I knew I wanted striped ones, but these from Crate and Barrel are nearly $100 a panel (!), and since I need six to eight panels that just wasn't going to happen.

So I got some tips from the good people on Pinterest, and looky what I made:

Details below the break.

So here is how it went down: I got Ikea Merete curtains in the bleached color and sewed black stripes onto them. They are only $27.99 a pair, and pretty awesome for the price. They weren't long enough for our place, but the black stripe at the bottom makes up the extra length. I still need to figure out what I spent on fabric at JoAnn's, but I got it on a 50% sale and the final product was definitely a lot less than the $200 bucks per window I would have spent at Crate and Barrel.

I was inspired by this post at The Yellow Cape Cod (whose author was smarter than I was and ironed her stripes on rather than sewing) and this tutorial from McCarty Designs. There was a little trial and error involved....the stripes need to be the same width and match up going across or they look wonky. My stripes are 14.75 inches wide for most of the curtain, but the last two stripes closest to the floor are a little smaller. Our floors slant like crazy, so I actually hemmed them to match our floor rather than in a straight line.

Since I can't cut a straight line to save my life I highly recommend some sort of cutting mat or grid you can put on the floor. I got a cheapo cardboard one that you can't really cut on, but you can use it for measuring straight-ish lines. 

If you want to make these and have questions feel free to contact me. I'll be here losing my mind trying to make four more panels for the bay window.

Edited to add: I just read through this and me giving crafty advice is about as hilarious as Isla Fisher's spendy character in "Confessions of a Shopholic" giving financial advice. If I weren't so cheap and saving for frivolous stuff like Tate's college education I would have gladly spent hundreds of dollars on the awesome Crate and Barrel curtains and saved myself a lot of swearing and seam-ripping, but I am pretty proud of these suckers.