Curtains from a Duvet Cover

Several months ago (um, like maybe even a year ago?) we were shopping at Ikea when I found this bright yellow duvet cover in the "as-is" section of the store.  It was the brightest, happiest shade of yellow with yellow polka dots scattered randomly all over.  It was marked down to $15, and to me, it screamed "CURTAINS!"

So, I bought it.

Then I proceeded to stick it in my closet and it became one of those "someday" projects.  My friend Christa calls them UFOs - Un-Finished Objects.  I have a lot of those, and in the interest of Getting Stuff Done, I'm trying to get to them now because I know nothing much will be happening project-wise for the first six months or so after Kelly gets here.  

Today, I pulled out that duvet cover finally and whipped these up.

Please pardon the boy's messy room.

Seriously y'all?  Easiest curtains ever.  The backside of the duvet is white with little yellow dashes.  To me, that meant these bad boys were already lined.  AW YEAH.  All I did was turn the cover inside out and give it a good ironing, being sure to press the edge seams very carefully and neatly.  Then I folded it in half lengthwise (again, carefully and neatly) and cut that sucker right down the middle.  I stitched up that raw edge (didn't bother pinning, just lined it up as I went along - lazy seamstress), turned the panel right side out, and ironed it again, concentrating on the edges being even.

After that it was just a matter of folding down the top edge three inches, sewing across the bottom of that to make the pocket for the rod and then top stitching around the other three edges so it would look more finished.  I then repeated the process for the other side.  Once again, the ironing was the hardest and most time consuming part of this sewing project.

My husband picked up the rod at Ikea on his way home from work today.  It's a Hugad rod ($3.99) with Vasentlig finials ($4.99) and two Betydlig wall brackets ($1.49 each), so the whole assembly was only about twelve bucks.  That's not bad!  I dug through my scraps for the green fabric to make the tie backs.  They have bits of ribbon (also already in my stash of stuff) on the ends that I tied together.  Piece of cake and I love how they look.

Total for this project - $27.  You can barely find ONE nice curtain panel for that price anymore.  I am pleased with how they came out and love that they're lined so they look more finished and less like I just threw them together.  I can't believe it took me this long to get to them!