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It had been a while since I continued on with my craft studio makeover posts in my new house. If you missed it you can read post 1, 2, and 3 before you start to read this. Well today I am talking window treatments. In my old craft studio space I had purchased some IKEA Janette curtains (no longer available).  My ceilings were only 8 feet in my old house.  In my new house they are 9 feet which means short curtains.  Boo!  I really loved the curtains still and with all the white cabinetry in my studio I really wanted to add some color to the room.  After contemplating new curtains, I decided to use what I had and just add a panel to add some length to it.

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Since it was grommet topped I couldn’t add fabric to the top unless I wanted to re-add grommets and I really don’t like the look of adding more fabric to the bottom.  So I decided to add fabric in the middle of them.  I was hoping it would look like it was always meant to be that way and not that I just needed more length.

1.  To begin I cut my curtain top 14” from the top edge.

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2.  I grabbed some blue canvas cloth from Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores and I cut that to 12”.  I wanted my panel to be 11” with a 1/2” seam allowance on both sides. I started to seam rip the two edges of my curtain in order to sew the blue panel on.

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3.  With right sides together I pinned my new fabric to the panel top and sewed with a 1/2” seam allowance.  Then I hung my curtain back in place.

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4.  Next I measured from the bottom of my blue panel to the floor and added 1/2” for seam allowance.  I cut the top of the bottom of my IKEA curtain (you want to keep the bottom seam in tact) to that size.  I pinned right sides together and sewed with a 1/2” seam allowance.

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5.  Lastly I pressed all my seams and refolded the edges I seam ripped.  Then all I had to do was sew the sides up and repeat that for the other curtain.  And honestly, I think I like them more with the panel in them than I did before.

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I think it was actually easier to do it this way than to add a length to the bottom because then I would have had to redo the hem at the bottom.

Here are a few more curtain posts…some of which happen to be IKEA curtain panels.  Click on the image to be taken directly to the post.

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DIY striped and painted curtains

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