Friday, November 22, 2013

NO SEW OUTDOOR DROP CLOTH CURTAINS WITH GROMMETS


Hello, everyone. Happy Friday!

So hard to believe it is almost Thanksgiving, but thanks to the cold front that came in last night, it sure feels like winter is finally arriving in Texas, slowly but surely.

I had planned on finishing my outdoor curtains this weekend, but due to the weather it seems like it is going to have to wait a little longer.

Meanwhile, I am going to try to give you a tutorial on how I made the ones that I finished last week.




I warn you, I am not good at giving tutorials, so if you are planning to make some and need more information, feel free to email me at anytime and I will do my best to help you.

First, you will need to measure your space and buy your drop cloth according to those measurements.
They come in many different sizes.
In my case, after my husband enclosed the porch ceiling, the length dropped down to a little over 8 feet, so I bought at Lowe's eight of the 8 oz 6X9 drop cloths. 
Six feet is plenty of width.




 I looked around for the grommets. I wanted the bronze color since my bars are painted in the same color and finally found them at Hobby Lobby.
They were $7.99 for a set of eight, but if you use the 40% off coupons, each set will cost under $5.00
I used twelve grommets for each curtain.




And now you are ready to start making your outdoor curtains.
Each grommet set comes with a template.
I started marking my drop cloth about 1 inch in from the end and 1 1/2 front the top.


Using a pencil, trace your circle.


Now comes the tricky part, trying to figure out how far apart I needed to mark them. 
After playing with it for a while and measuring here and there, I figured out I needed to place them six inches apart from center to center.
These measurements will work great for a 6 foot wide drop cloth.



Now comes the scary part. LOL
Cutting the circles to create the openings for your grommets. I was a little worried to mess it up.
Make sure you cut your fabric right outside the circle or you will end up with too much fabric 
and the grommet won't fit.Trust me on this. LOL


And when you have all your circles cut, start installing your grommets. They are very easy, just need to snap them together. It takes a little pressing, but you can do it!


Once this is done, all you have to worry about is your length. Since the drop cloth already comes double stitched on all four sides, there is no need to do anything but take them in to your desired length.



I hemmed mine two inches on the bottom using my iron and the super strength hem tape.
And when they were finished, I ironed them before putting them up on the porch. That took a while! :)




And because our porch is not screened yet and the wind gets a little rough sometimes, I bought a pretty rope to keep them in place.


And you are done!
They are very easy to make, but very time consuming.
It took me several hours to make these four curtains, but I really took my time with them to make sure I did it right.



 And right away they changed the whole look of the porch, they even look pretty in the evening.



I will share better pictures soon, once they are all finished.






Hope this post gave you the information needed and the inspiration to make your own.
I will be back with the most viewed links of Tuesdays at Our Home.
Have a great weekend!




7 comments:

  1. Oh wow, your new curtains beautifully frame your porch and the pretty view to the backyard! And they look so polished! I think you did a great job with the tutorial!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great tutorial! Love your porch!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your outdoor drapes are beautiful! Love the idea of using grommets! I found the drop cloths at Home Depot today and plan on washing them before I begin the process. One question though.........are the grommets a problem in the washing machine/dryer when it comes time to wash them again?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No problem at all. You can wash them and dry them.

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  4. These are beautiful. How did you mount your rod?

    ReplyDelete
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