No Sew Dropcloth Curtain Panels and Valances

The window treatments in my kitchen/living room needed updating. I made them shortly after we moved in about eight years ago, and while I loved them back then, I fell out of love with them a few years ago. I've changed the whole direction of my kitchen/living room and they just didn't fit in anymore. So I'm re-homing them to someone who will love them as much as I used to. 

Updating included re-painting not just the kitchen/living room, but also the two-story foyer and upstairs hall as well, since they all flow together. And that took a lot of paint. And while I didn't get the most expensive paint, I didn't get the cheap stuff either. So I did spend a nice chunk of change on paint. And maybe one or two really cool accessories. I'm a sucker for Ross. And Tuesday Morning. So I didn't have a lot to spend on window treatments. Plus, the rooms have high ceilings with tall windows, so longer curtains mean more money. And I like cheap. And they're easy. No sew easy. Because at this point, I was also tired and lazy. Sewing would've been a hassle. 

I have seen dropcloth curtains on Pinterest, so I went to Lowe's to check out some dropcloths. Instead of buying all I needed at once, I picked up a 5' x4' to try out as valances for my two narrower windows. If I didn't like it, I was only out a couple bucks.

All you need to make these is dropcloths (thanks, Captain Obvious!), pinking shears (if you don't have pinking shears, you could use regular fabric shears, if you use Fray-Chek to keep them from fraying) and curtain rings with clips. I just reused my curtain rings from my previous curtains (free!) but you can get them pretty much anywhere that sells curtain rods. And you can get them fairly inexpensively too! 

I had read reviews that said dropcloths smell musty. Mine, fortunately, did not. I still washed and dried them. I pulled my out of the dryer as soon as it finished and hung it up, so I did not have to iron them. You could iron them, but I like the less formal, rustic feel. And I didn't feel like ironing at the time. To make my valances, I used the hems as my hem, and the selvage edges as my sides. I cut the dropcloth in half width-wise with my pinking shears, folded each almost in half, I just made the front side about a 1/4" longer to hide the pinked edge. Then I  attached my curtain rings and hung them up! One thing I like about curtain rings is that I can form pleats to make my valances hang better.

Since I loved the way my two smaller valances turned out, I traipsed back to Lowe's and got another 4'x5'  to make two valances for my sliding glass door and two 4'x12' for either side of my big picture window. I did the same thing for the longer sliding glass door valances as I did for the smaller window valances, since they are pretty much the same thing. 

As for the curtain panels, after I washed and dried them, I folded the curtain over to the length I wanted, keeping the shorter side to the back. I clipped on the curtain rings and hung them up. I noticed the shorter part in the back peeked out along the edges, so I tucked them in and secured them with a safety pin. Now these particular dropcloths have a seam across the middle. It actually doesn't look bad at all. I guess because it's all one color, it's not quite as noticeable. Harbor Freight has 4'x12' dropcloths without the seam, but they're a lighter weight and the color is lighter too. I prefer the heaver weight of the ones I got from Lowe's, seam and all. Hey, you can see my Dry Erase Paint Chip Board!

Looks pretty good, right? I've been thinking about jazzing them up with a stencil (red, of course). But I can't decide on a stencil. Do I want a small, all-over pattern, or a large scale pattern along the top or bottom, or trim along the center seam. Since a stencil (or trim) hasn't jumped out and declared to be the stencil of my dreams, I'm gonna keep them the way they are for now. Why go through all that work for something I just don't love? Just like waiting for Mr. Right. 

Until the next project, 
Chris