Making Custom Curtain Panels

One of my favorite, and I think easiest, items to sew is curtain panels. Creating panels that are custom to your space, and the perfect dimensions, can make a room look more finished and unique. The details of design are so important but draperies, especially custom panels, can be a huge investment. Recently, I made some shower curtain panels for our main bathroom, and thought that showing my process might be helpful to others.

In the past, I have made panels from all kinds of materials including vintage sheets, table cloths and drop cloths. I have altered already made panels and purchased new fabric, depending on the project. There are endless options for repurposing materials into window treatments. For basic panels, there are a ton of options and variations that can easily be applied to customize them. However, in this tutorial I am making simple, straight panels with holes at the top for shower curtain hooks.

The bathroom where these curtains will hang doesn’t actually have a shower. It only has a bathtub, but I still wanted shower curtain panels on each side to frame the tub area. There is a large window over the tub where we have added plant shelves instead of a window treatment. Because the window is not “covered”, the curtains can also be closed all the way to add additional privacy if needed.

This is how the tub area looked when we bought the house.

Pretty quickly after moving in, I took down the pink sheer curtain from the window and hung a shower curtain rod with some purchased, sheer shower curtain panels. I had a hard time deciding what kind of panels I wanted and settled on white with a quatrefoil, kind of polka dot print. The rod was hung at a standard height because I purchased pre-made curtains. The effect was close to what I had in mind, and functional, but I knew I wanted to improve it in the future.

One of our goals when purchasing this house was to get it back to more of a midcentury feel that it would’ve had originally. We made a lot of other changes to this bathroom and the sheer curtains stayed for about four years.

I completely forgot to take a “before” picture when starting this project, but the picture below gives an idea of how the rod was and you can see a little bit of the curtain on one side.

One thing I did know, was that I wanted to move the curtain rod to the top, close to the ceiling. This meant that whatever curtains I ended up with would have to be custom made. I finally found a fabric that I loved, but it was an investment for us. The company I ordered the fabric from will sell the yardage or make custom panels for you. By making the panels myself, I was able to save a lot of money and still get the look I wanted.

Below is the fabric I found. I like the simple shapes and feel like they give a midcentury vibe. The green also perfectly matches the floor tile we have in this bathroom. This fabric is a mid-weight, upholstery fabric - not apparel fabric, so it comes in a wider width. This is an important detail to keep in mind when you are shopping for fabric. You want to make sure that your panels will be wide enough for your project. I was planning for just a single panel on each side of the tub, so my panels needed to be wide enough to meet in the middle when pulled closed.

Since the width was already a fit for what I needed, I ordered just enough yardage to get the two panel lengths I needed and planned to use every bit of it. The first thing I did after receiving the fabric was to inspect it and then wash it. Washing your fabric before any project is very important because it might shrink. Also, there is often sizing in new fabric which might change the feel and make it hang differently than it will after washing. With these panels being in a bathroom, I made sure to get a washable fabric.

Next, I moved my shower curtain rod up to the height I wanted and it already felt better to me.

This bathroom is large and has high ceilings. I wanted to accentuate that with floor to ceiling panels. Also, I felt like the previous rod location cut across the view of the plant window (which is the focal point of the room) in a way that I didn’t love.

After moving the rod, I measured from the rod to the floor. I did not measure from the ceiling to the floor because the shower curtain hooks make the curtain hang a little lower. Then I cut my fabric to length, allowing extra length for folding to create hems on the top and bottom of the panels.

After cutting the fabric to length, I serged each edge. Don’t worry if you do not have a serger, this step is not necessary. The edges can be folded over twice and stitched. One reason I serged the edges on these panels was so that I could get as much width out of the fabric as possible. An added bonus is that serging the edges makes for one less step and the project a little quicker and easier to complete.

Next, I wanted to add some additional strength to the top of curtain. Since the top would have holes for the hooks, and would need to support some weight, I added some fusible interfacing to the top. By measuring the existing curtains, I determined the finished size I wanted for the top of the curtain to be 1.5 inches high. This means that I would need 3 inches total at the top, so that I could fold it over for a finished double thickness.

I measured down the 1.5 inches where I wanted to add the interfacing and fused it onto the fabric, with an iron, following the manufacturers instructions.

Before folding and sewing the top, I needed to press and sew the side seams. You want to complete this step before sewing the top or bottom of the panels. I pressed the side seams at 1/2 inch and then pinned it in place. (If you are not serging the edges, fold the fabric over again and press. You will end up with a nicely finished seam, encasing the raw edge).

I sewed a straight stitch down the middle, at 1/4 inch from the seam edge, on each side of both panels.

With the sides complete, I turned my attention back to the top of the panels. I folded the top over at 1.5 inches, encasing the interfacing, and pressed the fabric. After pressing, I secured the top seam, sides and bottom of the top with pins. I wanted to ensure that nothing would shift during sewing. Since I would be creating holes for the shower curtain hooks, I sewed all edges of the top to make it very stable. I stitched the seams at a 1/4 inch from the edges.

*If I was making curtain panels instead of shower curtains, at this step I would leave the side seams open at the top to create a rod pocket.

Above is how it looks from the back and below is how it looks from the front.

To create the holes for the shower curtain hooks, I again used the existing panels to determine where the holes would be and how many were needed. Using a heat erasable pen, I marked the location for each hole by tracing it from the existing curtain.

Using a zig-zag stitch, I sewed around each line as you would if you were creating a button hole. I set my machine for a medium width stitch and very short length at .5. This creates a tight zig-zag stitch that will support the hole and keep the fabric from fraying.

Using sharp scissors, I carefully slashed along the red line I had made. Taking extra care to make sure not to cut through any stitches. I then repeated these steps to create 12 holes on each panel.

With the top completed, I pressed it to remove the ink and moved onto creating the bottom hems. I hung the curtains and pinned up the bottom to double check my measurements. After stepping back to make sure I was happy with the length, I marked the seam location and then pressed it. I ended up with 12 inches of fabric at the bottom. After pressing that line, I folded the fabric under and pressed again to create a double thickness. I wanted a thick bottom hem with some weight so that the panels would hang well. I also wanted them to “puddle” slightly, which means that they will slightly pool, or gather, on the floor.

*Tip - leaving extra fabric in the bottom, if you are able, makes it so that these panels could be reused in another room and could be made longer or shorter.

And before I knew it, I had two completed panels!

I love how they turned out! These curtains are exactly what I had been looking for and instantly made the room feel more open and complete. They also close easily and meet in the middle for privacy.

I was able to complete both panels in about 4 hours. Simple sewing projects like this one can be some of the most satisfying. Curtain panels with a rod pocket are even easier and quicker to sew than these shower curtain panels. From basic panels, I have also made panels that used curtain clips instead of a rod pocket or sewn tab tops onto the panels for hanging. Trim details could be added, as well as a contrast band, ruffle or layers of ruffles onto the bottom or the top. Your imagination and creativity are the only limits!

If you need to cover a wider area, create multiple, matching panels instead of only two.

I hope you found this tutorial helpful and/or inspirational! Thanks for following along and happy sewing!