It will be 9 years next month since we moved into our house. There were absolutely no drapes in the house. So I had to find a frugal way of either buying drapes or making them myself. My husband and I first started shopping for drapes at several stores. I looked at the price tags and was astonished and knew right away that it would have cost us a lot of money to do the entire house.
I either read this frugal tip in a magazine or heard it on TV about making drapes out of flat bed sheets. I thought to myself, "Why not give it a try". I purchased two flat queen sized sheets from Sears because I fell in love with the large flower pattern. The flat twin size sheets were either purchased from K-Mart or Walmart. I also had to purchase some drapery rods for the kitchen, bathroom and three bedrooms.
I didn't use a sewing pattern, just plan old ingenuity and the many years of sewing experience helped me out tremendously. I wanted to make floor length drapes for my living room windows. So I ran the curtain rod through the top casing on the sheet and hung it up to my window. Then stepped back and took a long hard look at what needed to be done. The sheet was extremely long so I measured as to how much I should cut off at the bottom. I cut both sheets the same length and sewed the bottom hems on my sewing machine.
I'm so frugal, that I didn't want to spend the extra money for another flat sheet so I made a pair of drapes out of the left over fabric that I used on the kitchen window.
They are so very easy to launder, and never need dry cleaning. Just wash, dry and press with your iron. I even bought four pairs of sheer drapes in a few garage sales that I used for my living room and bedroom windows.
Now you're probably wondering what it cost me to do the entire house. Would you believe if I told you about $109.00 - $115.00.
By Marge W. from Sanborn, NY
Most of my curtains I've made from sheets. I simply measure the length then fold the top down and stitch two lines across leaving enough room at the top for the ruffle, and enough between each line for the rod to go through.
Our sliding glass door has old lace curtains on a spring-loaded rod. I went to Walmart and bought 2 twin size white sheets and a second rod.
Need to accessorize your bedrooms? Buy sheets to match your bedrooms and make curtains. Curtains are an easy make, as you only have to worry about making two seams for the top.
If you have high windows that need curtains over 86 inches but don't want to spend money buying the longer lengths or for material by the yard, just buy flat bed sheet(s). They're already sewn looking like curtains and come in many colors and patterns.
You can make nice pinch pleated drapes from sheets. I used king sized sheets and made them floor to ceiling for a 22 foot opening.