DIY: Easy Blackout Curtains

I had taken to nightly whining fits. 10pm. 11pm. 2am. 6am.

There's a lampost right outside our bedroom window that's on all night, so it's not just the morning sun that pokes through our curtains and slaps me like I'd been dancing on bar tops all night long, when I know for certain that I had not been. I'm not 30 anymore.

So what's a girl to do with her cute, store bought, thinly veiled curtains?

Source: West Elm Ikat Ogee Linen Curtains

You dream of hotels, that's what you do! Like the one you stayed in the night you got engaged. 

Bar dancing hussy turns into bed jumping monkey
at the stroke of a sapphire.

I digress.

Hotels get it right every time. With their thick, fluffy duvets, remote control tv's, bathrooms 3 feet from the bed and, my personal favorite, curtains so dark that you could live there for 10 days and forget that the earth revolves around the sun.

We're staying here when we go to London next month. 
It's going to be so dark!!!
Source: Base2Stay.com

So back to the problem at hand: my super thin curtains and my lazy solution for night fits. This is the easiest sewing project you'll ever do, I promise. I did this yesterday in about an hour, and boy did I SLEEP last night!

The most awesome thing about blackout fabric is that it cuts like butter and doesn't need to be hemmed!

1.  First buy your curtains.

These are nice.
Source: Urban Outfitters 

You could make your own, which I've done plenty of in my lifetime. But sometimes the thought of measuring, cutting, folding, pressing, pinning and hemming 36 yards in circumference is a little too much for a Tuesday, so you buy them readymade.

2.  Get some blackout fabric. I usually use white or cream, depending on the fabric color.

3. Roll out the blackout fabric and lay your curtain on top of it. Trim all around the edges just outside the curtain. Cut it like you cut wrapping paper. Wheeee!

**Save yourself some cutting by scooting the curtain over to one side of the b.o. fabric and making the top of the curtain flush with the top edge.

Yes, those are my haircutting shears. 

4.  Sew it! And guess what, you don't even need to pin it. I'm a renegade, so I don't play by no stinkin' rules. If you have a steady hand and focused eye, you can just hold the fabrics in place as you feed them through the machine.

Sew all around the edges - you can skip the bottoms like I did.

5.  At the top of your curtain, sew the b.o. fabric just below the panel where the rod goes. I just followed along the existing seam. Trim off the excess.

And voila! You have blackout curtains!!

Ginger couldn't be bothered with celebrating my handiwork.

Sleep well, my friends.