Given the success of my hand painted cherry blossom footstool, I knew I had to follow that up with a bathroom coordinate that I could really SINK my sewing scissors into: A fabric shower curtain! So without further ado, let’s dive on into today’s crafty décor by creating our own bathroom accessories.
A standard shower curtain measures 72″ x 72″ when finished, and the fact that I wanted to make a white shower curtain made it very easy for me in the fabric measurement department: I used two cuts of Kona Cotton that measured 4 ½ yards each.
*Tip: Make friends with store clerks! I ended up purchasing nine yards total, and the helpful associate at the fabric store went ahead and cut them into two equal portions for me. If you tell them what you’re making, nine times out of ten they’re very willing to offer their assistance where they can!
When I got home, I squared up my panels so that they each measured 80″ long and 38 ¼” wide.
Layout your fabric panels with the ‘right sides together.’ For those not familiar with sewing (and it still takes me a minute to make sure it’s correct because ‘right sides together’ actually means ‘it looks wrong’), that means the pieces that you want to show on the outside of the curtain — place those facing each other and the panel will look like the fabric is inside out.
Once they are perfectly aligned, start pinning the edges together, placing pins about 6″ apart.
How much do you love the old school tomato pin cushion!
From here, it’s easiest to transfer your panels over to the sewing machine by folding over the opposite side very loosely into thirds. My first quilting project ever was a king-sized quilt, and 90% of the mistakes I’ve ever made and the shortcuts I’ve picked up are attributable to that project alone!
Yes, that’s my 17-year-old Maine Coon, Cyrus (‘The Boy’), supervising. Cats don’t even care.
After carefully removing any ‘helpers’ you pick up along the way, begin sewing your two panels together with a ½” seam, removing the pins as you go. Do NOT sew over the pins as they can damage your needle and your day in one fell swoop!
Transfer your now-complete sheet over to the ironing board and iron open your seam.
Spread out your entire curtain and smooth out the wrinkles as much as possible.
Create the side hems by folding over each side 1″ and then 1″ again, pinning as you work your way down the curtain. Stitch as close to the edge as possible to create your hemmed edges. Once you’ve hemmed the sides, the entire curtain should measure 72″ across.
As soon as you have your side hems stitched in place, hem the top and the bottom. For the top, I’ll be placing metal grommets inside the hem, so I made my two folds 1 ¼” each for a total of 2 ½” off of the top. For the bottom, fold 2 ¾” over twice and pin for a bottom hem width that is just shy of 3″ making the entire length of the curtain 72″ at this point. Stitch in place.
Here you can see how close to the edges you should get to secure your hemmed edges and how to center the eyelet/grommet into place. Follow the instructions that come with the packet you purchase (I bought two packs of extra-large eyelets from my fabric store).
Now that the sheet resembles a shower curtain, it’s time to dress her up! I love this bright sky blue and vivid hot pink stripe ribbon I found. Even though it reads a bit darker in the photos, in reality it pairs nicely with the sky blue and pinks in my cherry blossom foot stool and the blue of my bathroom walls.
I took three spools of ribbon (each ¾” wide and 3 yards long) and cut them into equal segments measuring 8 ½” each.
I laid out the pieces of ribbon into a chevron pattern running the width of the shower curtain and taking up most of the bottom half of the curtain. Because I was designing this curtain on the fly without a pattern, this was one of the most time-consuming portions of the entire project and took a couple of hours to get these spaced properly. I pinned each ribbon where it intersected with another.
Moving back to the sewing machine, I attached each ribbon using a hot pink cotton thread running down the center of each piece of pink. Make sure you backstitch at the end of each segment, clip the threads and start over again at the beginning of the next bend.
Once you’ve attached all ribbons, iron the entire curtain again and hang it from your curtain rod.
I’m a fan of the curtain pulled closed or opened to one side, and you have a better shot of the color combination (with the walls) when the curtain is open. But you have a lovely chevron when the curtain is closed and cool peaks (almost like lightning bolts) when it’s bunched in the corner.
All in all, it’s the perfect bathroom accessory!
Have you ever sewn a fabric shower curtain?
Rheney Williams writes about her DIY bath decor craft projects for Home Depot. Rheney is a crafter who lives in Charleston, S.C., where she has been updating her home with all manner of custom Lowcountry touches.