DIY Upcycled Vintage Tea Towel Christmas Curtains

One of my favorite spots in our home is the window at the kitchen sink. I love the view to the screen porch and back yard and it is a cute little size and perfect for cafe curtains. It is too small for traditional cafe curtains, and I love to sew, so I have always made curtains for this spot. Last year I picked up a fantastic linen Christmas tea towel at the antiques festival. It ended up being a perfect size to use for my curtains in the kitchen window!

Here’s What You Need:

*Vintage Christmas Tea Towel

*Trim

*Festive Fabric

*Scissors

*Ruler

*Sewing Machine and Thread

*Tension Rods to fit your window

*Curtain Rings with Clips

Instructions:

 

First gather your supplies. Cut your tea towel in half. Measure your window opening so you can decide how big to make the valance. For example if my window width was 45″ then I would make my fabric 90″ wide. Determine the height you like and then add a few inches for the casing and also the hem. So if you want your length to be 12″ finished, then you would cut a piece 15″ long by the width you want, so in my example it would be a piece 15″x90″. You may have to cut two pieces that are 15×45 and stitch them together to form your long piece.

 

Next, fold under your top edge by about a 1/4″ and press. Then fold again towards the wrong side by about an inch. Press. Stitch the fold down all the way down the width of the fabric close to the open edge of the fold. This will form your casing that you will stick the rod through.

 

Next, fold under the bottom edge 1/4″ and then over again and press. Stitch down to hem. If you want to add ricrac, you can stitch it to the underside of the bottom hem. Now you should have your valance.

 

Now you are ready to work on your tea towel pieces. Press under the top where the raw edges are towards the back side. Stitch. Now, you can stitch on your trim or ribbons.

 

Stitch down any other trims you may want to add. I added a felt trim to the tops and gold ric rac on the front close to the bottom. Then I stitched green ricrac to the underside of the hem.

Now your curtains are sewn. Insert your tension rod through your valance and position it in the top of your window opening. Load the rings on your other tension rod and position that one right in the middle. Clip your tea towel sides to the clips. Enjoy.

 

I LOVE my Christmas curtains! They have made one of my favorite spots even cuter and jolly for the holidays! I love sipping tea and looking out the window in the morning at all the dog walkers in the neighborhood. This was pretty easy to whip up and takes less than a yard of fabric for the valance so it is an inexpensive window treatment! I hope you guys will try tea towels as cafe curtains for your small windows sometime, you’ll love them! I’ll be back next week with more Christmas crafting! Until then…

Happy Crafting!