On today’s How2Girl Radio show I teach how 2 make baloon curtains. Click here to listen! Here is the step by step instructions or for those of you who can’t access iheartradio this post is for you!
I love sewing, I’m not that great at it, but I can sew a straight line just fine. I decided to forgo the cost of hiring a seamstress or curtain maker to do all of the curtains in Nikki and my home and make them myself. Most of them were simple long panels with tie backs but for a few of our rooms I really had my heart set on balloon curtains. The problem was, now I was going to have to hire someone to make them, which was going to be very expensive, so I thought why not give it a try, they can’t be that hard to do… turns out I was right. They turned out adorable, they were easy to do and they look very professional and pretty! Yay! I wanted to share how to make them with you so if you are ever in the mood for balloon curtains you can save yourself some money!
Here’s what you do:
I used 2 yards of fabric per window but this depends on your windows. Ours are 40 inches wide from molding to molding.
1. Turn your fabric facing down. You will need bias tape 4 lengths of the yardage you use. So I will need 8 yards of bias tape per curtain if I’m using 2 yards of fabric. My curtains are sewn into place because I didn’t want to obstruct our view but if you want to be able to move your curtains up and down then substitute 2 pieces of ribbon for 1 piece of bias tape. 
2. Cut two even pieces of fabric measuring 1 1/2 inch wide off the bottom of your fabric. This will be used later to create a funnel for the bias tape.
3. Place 4 pieces of your bias tape along your fabric, make sure you have a few inches of extra slack at the bottom. Position 1 piece of tape at each end, leaving enough space for you to fold the fabric over to create a seam. The seams will make a funnel to pull the bias tape through at the end. Place the remaining 2 pieces of tape at the same width inwards from the edge tape. So when you are looking at your fabric straight on it will look like this. The BLUE lines represents the bias tape. You can place it as close together or as far apart from the outer edges as you want to change the effect of the drape but just be sure to measure and make sure they are even.
4. Using sewing pins, fold over your fabric on the outer edges 1 1/2 inch and pin. Make sure to pin your bias tape into place when pinning. The idea here is when you sew your seam line, you are making a funnel over the tape that you will later pull the tape through to create the poofs. Next take your 2 pieces of 1 1/2 inch fabric you cut and place them over your middle two lines of bias tape and pin into place. Trim off the excess fabric at the bottom, but leave the extra bias tape at the bottom, you will need that to pull through later. Be sure not to sew over the bias tape because you won’t be able to pull it through to bunch up your curtains if it’s sewn into place.
5. Now that everything is pinned into place. Sew your seams. You will have 1 seam on both edges and you will need to sew 2 seam lines to create a funnel for the 2 inner bias tapes.
6. Cut off any remaining fabric at the top of your fabric to make sure you have a straight line. Fold over your fabric at the top pining it into place evenly length wise across the width. I used curtain rods that were flat like this to go around my window. These types work really well for balloon curtains, they don’t nessecarely need to be as wide but you should use the type that wrap around the corners like this rather than straight rods. My fold was 3 inches to fit my rod. Pin your fold into place. Be sure you sew the bias tape into place, so keep that in mind when you’re pinning. At the bottom I did the same but made a 1 inch fold and pinned into place. When sewing your straight lines be sure to skip over the funnels with the binding.
7. You’re ready to hang! Get the curtain on your rod and then attach it to the brackets in the wall. Now for the fun part… hold on to each piece of bias tape and pull your fabric up as high as you want it. Once you get them all to the height and poofiness that you like, sew the bottom of the bias tape into place and cut off the excess. I wanted to keep my curtains in place permanently but don’t worry, if you want to be able to move them up and down depending on the sun then now you can tie your pieces of ribbon in a bow instead of sewing the bias tape in place.
8. Enjoy your new fabulous curtains!
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