Striped Curtain Tutorial

I am obsessed with all things striped.  Look in my closet and you'll find stripes.  Stripes in the hallway?  I've got those too.  Lately I've been loving the look of striped curtains.

I've got a little round-up of striped curtains that other bloggers have made using different techniques, then I'll show you the striped curtains that I whipped up. 

The Nesting Place was one of the first places that I noticed horizontally striped curtains and started thinking about putting them in my home.  She used striped fabric to sew panels.

Perfectly Imperfect painted her curtains with chalk paint.  These look so beachy to me.

Source: perfectlyimperfectblog.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Camilla at Effortless Style used spray fabric paint on white panels to get this look.

Source: blog.effortless-style.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Sarah at the Yellow Cape Cod used a different technique.  She already had white panels and used fusible fabric webbing to attach strips of black fabric to her panels.  Then she attached grosgrain ribbon along the edges.  The ribbon gives such an elegant, finished look.

Source: theyellowcapecod.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

These curtains at A Thoughtful Place were made by sewing strips of different colored fabric together.

Source: athoughtfulplaceblog.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

I have no idea how these were made, but I love them too much not to include them here.

Source: reasonstobreathe.tumblr.com via Lauren on Pinterest

I am not the best seamstress and the thought of having to sew perfectly straight lines was too frightening for me.  I knew I wanted to start with premade white curtains and the easiest way to make stripes was to paint them on.  I painted stripes in the hallway and it was surprisingly easy.  So, I decided to use the same technique for painting the curtains.

I purchased some inexpensive white panels from Target.  I think they were around $20 for a pack of two panels.

Next, I taped off my stripes in seven inch intervals.

I used regular old acrylic craft paint to paint the stripes.  However, I added a fabric medium to the paint.  The fabric medium makes it so that the paint will not wash off when I wash the curtains.  Since these curtains are going in a child's room, it's essential that the curtains are washable.

I started by using a foam roller to roll the paint on.  The paint did not want to spread evenly across the fabric and it was taking forever to get the fabric covered in paint.  After two stripes, I switched from the foam roller to an old paintbrush.  The paint went on much better with the paintbrush.  Be sure to put some cardboard under the fabric as the paint bled through.

The fabric seemed to take the paint differently.  Some areas did not absorb the paint very well.  I think you need to goop lots of paint on the fabric to get good coverage.  As you can see, I still need to do a second coat on some of the stripes.

The stripes are a bit stiff and crunchy, but I think they will soften over time, especially after being washed.

As you can see, there are lots of ways to make striped curtains.  I'm happy with the paint method, but check out the other links if you want to try something different.