Brighten Up Your Home With a Hand-Embroidered Curtain

Do you have a window in need of a makeover? I have a small window in my kitchen that was in need of a bright and fun curtain that could still let the light in. This window isn’t a typical size, so I knew I would have to create my own curtain. Because it’s in the kitchen, I wanted to embellish the curtain with something bright and airy to keep things lively in the morning and cheery in the evening.

The Craftsy pattern shop has some great embroidery patterns. I found the Hatchet Orange and Lemon Split patterns available from Kelly Fletcher Needlework Design. I knew these would bring instant color and cheeriness to my small kitchen window, so I stitched them up!

DIY kitchen curtain tutorial

Materials you’ll need:

• White cotton muslin
• 5-inch embroidery hoop
• 6-strand embroidery floss in colors of choice
• Embroidery needles and scissors
• Sewing machine and necessary supplies
• Iron and ironing board
• Tension rod for hanging the curtain
• Straight pins

Note: This tutorial can easily be adapted in size in order to bring embroidered accents into any living space.

Step 1:

Measure your window. The window space I wanted to cover measures 23 inches wide by 16 inches tall. I added an inch for the width and 2 inches for the height to account for the hem around each side. I cut my muslin to 18 inches tall by 25 inches wide.

Step 2:

Fold the two sides and bottom of the fabric by 1/4 inch and press. Fold this over another 1/4 inch and press again for each of the two sides and bottom.

Step 3:

Sew around the three sides to create the hem of the curtain.

Step 4:

Using the tension rod as a guide, fold the top of the curtain over, opposite sides together, and pin the fabric when it feels like the fabric will hug the tension rod, but not make it too difficult to fit it into the curtain. This was 1.5 inches for my curtain.

Step 5:

Measure out the same length across the top of the curtain, press, and pin in place.

Step 6:

Set your sewing machine to a zigzag stitch. I set the length on my machine to 2 and the width to 6.5. You may want to play around with the length and width of your zigzag stitch and test it on a scrap piece of fabric before you sew the top edge. Keeping the fabric and the edge of the fold centered, sew the zigzag stitch to finish the edge of this top fold hem.

Step 7:

I decided to use two different patterns and doubled them up along the bottom edge of the curtain. I started out by placing the first lemon pattern approximately 3 inches in from the left side and 1.25 inches from the bottom edge. I spaced the orange pattern 3 inches away from this. Then repeated the 3 inch distance for the second lemon and orange.

Step 8:

Once the patterns were all transferred, I began stitching from the right side of the curtain to the left. The pattern fit perfectly in a 5-inch hoop. I used 3-ply of the 6 strand embroidery floss and followed the great color and stitch guide that comes with each pattern.

Step 9:

Press the fabric, making sure not to press your embroidery, as it could warp the stitches. I pressed carefully around my stitches until my curtain was without wrinkles.

Step 10:

Slide the tension rod into the top hem and fit it into the window. Arrange the tension rod to your liking.

That’s all there is to it. Now all you need to do is sit back with your morning coffee and enjoy your brand new embroidered curtain!

This was a quick and fun way to customize a curtain for my kitchen. I adore the citrus-themed patterns — they really liven up this small corner of my kitchen.

Learn the basics of hand embroidery and designing patterns to stitch truly custom treasures for your home, your wardrobe and your friends in Design It, Stitch It: Hand Embroidery with Jessica Marquez!

Do you have a need for a custom curtain at your house?