Make it: vintage button kitchen curtains!
January 19, 2007 at 11:50 am | In I love to make things..., projects to do | 33 CommentsI’ve lived in this apartment for nearly two years, and somehow I’ve never actually made curtains for my bare and boring kitchen window during all this time. I guess I fell into the not-sure-how-long-we’ll-be-here trap, and hesitated to cut up any of my pretty vintage fabric for a relatively temporary living situation.
But when we got back from a month of traveling, and our neglected apartment was in dire need of a pick-me-up, I put the curtain project back on the front burner. And then I spotted the cheerful flowered tea towels we got at Crate & Barrel last year and realized that maybe I didn’t have to use anything precious… and a $2 tension curtain rod from the hardware store and a vintage button windfall at the Rose Bowl flea market on Sunday sealed the deal. And a couple of hours later, our kitchen is so much cuter.
These dishcloth curtains are quick to make and ultra-easy, since all the edging is already done for you. You could also try using vintage or new scarves (filmy ones would be nice) or cut a patterned pillowcase in half and hem the side edges.
You’ll need:
Two matching or similar tea towels (mine measured 26 inches long and 20 inches wide)
Measuring tape
Pins
Iron (recommended)
Sewing machine (recommended)
Needle and thread
Assorted vintage buttons (I used about 50 for mine)
Tension curtain rod to fit your window
1. Fold the short end of each dishtowel down to form a channel for the curtain rod (mine worked well at 1.5 inches — so it slipped over the ends of the rod but wasn’t loose). Iron or smooth it down and pin it in place. This will be the top of your curtains.
2. Stitch each seam by hand or with a machine. Test it to make sure it fits over the tension rod, and rip it out and re-sew it if it’s too big or too small.
3. Now it’s time for the fun part: arranging and sewing on the vintage buttons! Hand-sew each button on, bringing the needle and thread through three times to hold it in place.
I added one to the center of each flower, and used lots of different styles and sizes in orange, red, green, and yellow. It could also look great with a repeating print and identical buttons… or a simpler style with a button here and there as an accent. I threaded four needles, each with a different color, and just picked up a new one every time I added a different color button, but you could use the same thread each time if you like for simplicity.
4. When you have finished adding as many buttons as you want, slip the curtains onto the tension rod and place it where you’d like it in the window. This is perfect for a cafe-style curtain, with window peeking out above or below, rather than a measured or fitted style.
It would look really cute with vintage rick-rack, ribbon, or lace all along the bottom too… there are a million ways to customize your curtains.
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Very cute idea! What a lucky lassie to find buttons that matched sooo perfectly!
Comment by jennifer w. — January 19, 2007 #
Jennifer, thanks!! I got really lucky last weekend at the Rose Bowl flea market and bought a huge jar full, and sifted through them all to find all the pretty bright colors. I think it could be really cute with all matching ones too though!
Comment by Susan — January 19, 2007 #
Super cute, Susan!
Comment by Mariko — January 19, 2007 #
Oh my, Jack would think he had died and gone to heaven with all those buttons! The curtains are totally cute.
Comment by Sarah — January 19, 2007 #
Mariko, thank you!! I considered using the adorable pink owl fabric I got from superbuzzy to make the curtains, but I just couldn’t bring myself to cut it up… I heart that fabric.
Sarah, thanks! I love playing with buttons as much now as I did when I was Jack’s age, seriously. They are so addictive.
Comment by Susan — January 19, 2007 #
Oh those curtans are adorable! Inspires me to whip something up for my own curatin-less kitchen window.
Comment by Christina — January 19, 2007 #
Don’t you just love reproduction dish towels! I cut up a few vintage ones to make pillows and while I love my pillows, I am a little regretful that I cut them. The curtains look so great! I wish I had a kitchen window.
Comment by Jane — January 19, 2007 #
i love these!!! i just added you to my google home page, you are my hero!!!
xoxo
kathy
Comment by kathy — January 19, 2007 #
Those are fantastic!
Comment by Annika — January 19, 2007 #
Absolutely wonderful, Susan. Cutest curtains ever, and great tutorial!
Comment by craftypod — January 19, 2007 #
so cute!!! i love that floral pattern.
Comment by kayte — January 20, 2007 #
Love ‘em!!!
Comment by scatteredcuriosities — January 20, 2007 #
awesome! so darling, creative and thrifty too– I need curtains for my kitchen and have been similarly reluctant– you’ve totally inspired me!
Comment by Nancy — January 21, 2007 #
Wow this is such a great project! I really love your blog and have added it to my favourite blog list. I would love you to check out my blog – it’s appearing on the featured blogs page tomorrow and I’m so excited!!
http://www.vintagefilm.typepad.com
Comment by Jodie — January 22, 2007 #
Ack! Those are so crazy cute I can hardly stand it!!
Comment by claire — January 22, 2007 #
Awesome, thank you!
Comment by Amber — January 22, 2007 #
[...] Syndicated via RSS from del.icio.us/tag/diy Free wallpapers for your [...]
Pingback by iDiy.mobi » Make it: vintage button kitchen curtains! « West Coast Crafty — January 22, 2007 #
thanks for all the compliments and kind words!! I had so much fun making these.
Jane — I also treasure my vintage linens and fabric, it’s so hard for me to cut them up, even when I know it would be cute. And Jodie, I love your blog, and the gorgeous photographs you took in New York!
Comment by Susan — January 23, 2007 #
i fell in love with those dish towels too! I used them to make a clothes pin bag http://syddesigns.wordpress.com/2006/12/28/extreme-home-makeover-%e2%80%93-craft-edition/
and an apron for my sister in law (never took a pict before giving… bad me). The buttons are a super fabo edition!
Comment by syddesigns — January 25, 2007 #
ooh, that’s cute, I bet the apron is adorable too! I got two dish towels in that pastel colorway too and so far I’m just using them for drying dishes, but I’m tempted to craft with them too. Thanks for the link!
Comment by Susan — January 26, 2007 #
[...] is not what I’d call relaxing. So my next mini-home improvement project, after finishing the kitchen curtains, was making this room I’m usually in from morning til night a nicer place to [...]
Pingback by hello and good-bye « West Coast Crafty — January 26, 2007 #
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Pingback by dishtowl aprons « sincerely yours, dena — May 5, 2007 #
I was searching around for tutorials on how to make curtains (making some for my daughter’s playhouse) and yours came up. They look gorgeous – so happy and perfect. Great job!
Comment by casapinka — June 24, 2007 #
happy to see new and easy curtains
Comment by nushrath — August 31, 2007 #
[...] Easy Dishtowel Kitchen Curtains [...]
Pingback by Kitchen Curtain Ideas « East Coast Bungalow — August 14, 2008 #
So Cute!
Do you put a valance on top or leave it open???
I went to a huge rummage sale in my town yesterday, found what they called “vintage” curtins. They are too short in length to cover the entire window. Your idea inspired me to maybe hang them in the middle of my window???
Help!!
Comment by Brigitte Schlosser — August 16, 2008 #
[...] | In I love to make things…, chatty, craftivism, house crafty, oregon, projects to do | I made a quick little set of embellished kitchen curtains when we lived in LA a couple of years ago — two floral-print tea towels with buttons sewn to [...]
Pingback by tea towel curtains — now even easier! « West Coast Crafty — September 25, 2008 #
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Pingback by Make Quick Cafe Curtains With Tea Towels | Dollar Store Crafts — February 6, 2009 #
I LOVE THIS IDEA and I have quite a few cute and quite large dishtowels lying around which I’ve been waiting to use for some craft or another – THANKS FOR THE IDEA!
-Kels
Comment by Kelsey — February 6, 2009 #
Very crafty, and easy! I love the idea!
Comment by Tommie Jo — February 6, 2009 #
I can’t look at these without smiling! Old-fashioned yet modern, and so pretty, happy, and bright!
Comment by marienkafer — March 17, 2009 #