No-Sew Window Curtain Alterations

Today I wanted to bring back an oldie but goodie.

Straight out of the vault.

A post from when I had just moved into The New House and I was trying to turn that ugly old kitchen into something new and pretty.

I had a fancy new backsplash, freshly painted cabinets, and a plain old boring window right in the middle of them.

I’m sure a ‘before’ picture would be great right about now, but it went AWOL and cannot be found.

Just use your imagination.

I measured the window and went straight to the store to pick up some curtains to glam it up.

Well apparently my window is weird because there are absolutely no curtains that fit.

Talk about a disappointment.

Then I thought, I have a sewing machine, I can handle a few alterations.

So I bought a pack of curtains that were on clearance for $5 (YAY!) and came home with high hopes to make them beautiful.

If you’ve ever tried to run thin fabric through a sewing machine, you know it’s not easy.

The curtains kept bunching up and it looked terrible.

I quickly got irritated and gave up until I found out about this product a week later.

I found this handy-dandy fabric adhesive at Wal-Mart for $6.

They had a few different selections of liquid stitching adhesive, along with a couple of kinds of “tape” to choose from.

I picked the iron-on option because I thought it would hold up best in front of a window that gets a lot of sunshine.

I cut the curtain panel in half vertically, then cut the length to the size I needed plus an extra inch for the fold.

Then I ironed a fold around the edges so they would be nice and crisp.

Working in 6-8 inch sections, I squeezed a thin line of adhesive in the fold and pressed a hot iron (using the Wool setting) on the fold for 45-60 seconds.

It’s a good idea to put an old towel under the fabric in case it leaks.

(A nice little tip from my mini ironing board which now has dried glue in a few spots.)

Don’t worry about it showing through, it dries opaquely and you don’t even notice it.

Not recommended for sheer fabric.

They turned out great and only cost me eleven dollars!

And I’m happy to say that they’ve been up for almost a year and the adhesive is holding up perfectly.

They look just as good as they did when I first made them.

That cheap-o iron-on glue is actually pretty awesome.

And the window is really enjoying not being ugly anymore.