Have a princess in the house?

Then you might need these!

Princess Curtains - Cheap and Easy

(please note, these were FREE for me, because the sheer fabrics happened to be in a box of free fabric I scored from Craigslist. This may not be super cheap for you, however I do often see drapery type fabrics on the cheap at thrift stores. Just a tip.)

Level of difficulty: Easy - you simply need to know how to sew in a straight line

Materials Needed:

• Sewing machine
• thread
• scissors
• sheer fabric, approx 6-8 yards (give or take)
• a window to put them on

Step One:

Assess the pile of fabric that 6-8 yards of sheers creates

Step Two:

Fold in half lengthwise, and if you're crowded like me, lay it out on the floor because there's not room anywhere else

Of course, looking at my photo here, I cut this piece the WRONG WAY. Don't do this. Do it like this:

Step Three:

Cut along that fold on the long side, so you end up with two long skinny pieces. I have two fabrics, so I did this twice, to end with 4 pieces.

(sorry I didn't take a picture. I'm assuming you know what 2 or 4 skinny, long pieces of fabric look like)

Step Four:

Fold over the raw side of one strip, and hem. OR, be lazy like me, and do a decorative stitch down the side without folding over a hem, so it'll only fray to that point.

Step Five:

Measure the rod your princess curtains will be going on, then turn down approximately twice that at the top of your sheer. For example, the rod that these will be going on is about 1 inch tall, so I turned down 2 inches or so. This allows fullness at the top later on.

Step Six:

OPTIONAL: If needed, hem the bottom of the panel as well. A small, 1 inch turn up should do it. Double and triple check that you're turning up on the same wrong side as your other hems, because it really sucks to get all done and then realize you have raw edges on both sides, especially on an attention grabbing center piece like curtains.

Repeat steps 1-6 on the rest of your curtain peices.

Depending on how large the window is that you're dressing, this will probably not take more than 20 minutes or so. However, if it DOES take longer, YOU ARE NOT A FAILURE. I blazed through this to try to surprise my daughter when she came home with the family, and I had no idea how much time I had to accomplish it. Turned out I had like 2 hours, but I did the quick and dirty job I show you here, just in case.

Final Step:

Sneak into your princess' room, climb as needed to access the window rod, slip the curtains on, bunch up and fluff to taste, take a Ta-Da! picture, and then wait around non-chalantly to see the reaction.

Ours was a huge grin and big thank you hug :)