Making Blackout Curtains for the Bedroom....

It took me far too long but I have finally finished the blackout curtains for our bedroom. This was the final project of our recent renovation and something I was determined to do myself. I'm so pleased to have finally finished them!

You can see the fabric I picked above. It is a gorgeous linen, in an ikat style design from Kravet called Bansuri Bramble. After considering an enormous variety of  materials, and sending off for various samples, I ordered  from housefabric.com. Although I did buy some of the reupholstery fabrics locally, ordering this online was  the only way to make a high-end designer fabric feasible for a curtain project requiring such a considerable yardage. 

I wanted soothing colors and a decorative design that could balance the high ceiling and large built-in bookshelves which you can see below. Consequently, I picked a large pattern and large scale curtain rods - from West Elm, which hopefully provide a counterpoint to the wall of books across the room.

Making the curtains was rather more involved than I had anticipated. This was partly because I was adding the blackout fabric and partly because when you work with a large patterned fabric, you have to be very careful with your alignment - as you want the pattern at the same height on each panel. This make the cutting more complicated and means you need to order extra fabric to ensure the pattern on each panel matches. I also sewed weights into the bottom edges of the panels to weigh the fabric down and added buckram to the top edge to give it the stiffness to stand tall. I think these details gave a more professional finish and were worth the effort.

If you are contemplating a similar project I would be happy to give further details, just leave a comment below.