Simple Bathroom Curtains

As many of you know, when I am not crafting, I am probably working in my old house. In fact, more often than not, I am crafting something for my old house. As much as I enjoy making things, I enjoy making things that are useful. So here is a shameless plug for my other blog:

www.somethingoldisnew.blogspot.com

The fun of owning your own house is decorating it to your tastes. However, if you choose a color palette that is not "trendy", it is sometimes hard to find coordinating interior design options. In the case of my bathroom, we had a tile floor that was blue (the previous owner's choice, not mine), bronze fixtures, a green shower curtain, and purple walls. I was particularly fond of the shower curtain with its green and white dandelion silhouettes that I purchased from Target.

The problem came when I could not find any curtains that coordinated with the bathroom colors or that simply appealed to me. In general, I would say that my style is contemporary/eclectic. I like clean, simple designs, and straight, neat edges. But the bathroom needed curtains, not just for style, but also for privacy. After mulling it over, it occurred to me to just buy another matching shower curtain and make my curtains from that.

I envisioned a simple, flat curtain, somewhat similar to the shower curtain. However, after cutting the fabric and sewing it into a basic, square curtain set, I realized it did not hang like I had wanted it to. In order to make it hang properly, I folded it accordion style and secured each fold with a few stitches on the machine. I then took some curtain clips and hung them on every other fold. The result was a cute matching curtain set.

It soon became apparent that the curtains did not stay as tightly closed as we wanted them to. After all, a bathroom is where people want some privacy! Brice suggested that I sew a snap on them so that they offer more privacy. For the sake of convenience and a one-handed operation, the snap morphed into some sort of a magnetic closure. However, I felt both these closures might be a unsightly and finally settled on the simple and stylish button.

I used a Jade donut and a small, yellow, flower button to create a decorative closure with a simple loop. Now the curtains stay closed and remain stylish!

These curtains are similar to the pleated curtain styles, but updated to be a little more modern. However, the pleats may have to be ironed with heavy starch as the bathroom humidity can soften the folds with time.


If you want to attempt your own home decorating project, curtains are a great start. The are generally square, can be made out of a variety of fabrics, and can be completed in only a few hours. These curtains took about 2 hours to make (much of which was pressing the seams) and cost about $30 ($20 for the extra shower curtain and $10 for the curtain clips). I also have quite a bit of extra material left over for another project, and I can't stress how much I love that shower curtain fabric!