Anyone made their own curtains from a duvet cover?

[Em1503]

I've been struggling to find curtains for DD's room for ages! It's quite a big window so the quotes I've had in the fabric I like are over £200 which is far more than I'm willing to spend!

Anyway I noticed a lovely duvet cover in tesco and I'm wondering if I could make it into a pair of curtains myself. Am I mad? They'd need to have blackouts linings too.

Has anyone ever done this? I'm ok with a seeing machine, can make cushions, bunting and other quite straight forward stuff. Any tips before I go and ruin a perfectly good duvet cover?

My mil has done this so it definitely can be done. She just cut up the duvet to get enough fabric and added the lining to the back. She used the curtain rings with little clips that kind of look like crocodile clips on them to hang them on the rail.

How big is the window? & the curtain pole?

Is the duvet cover big enough?

I think I'd be tempted to buy the blackout linings & make curtains to go over the top

I've done it to make curtains that matched a Duvet cover. Had made curtains before, they're not that difficult. To make it easier you could use ready made blackout linings.

Ok this sounds doable then, thanks! Where's the best place to get ready made blackout curtains from? Dunelm? The window is approx. 94inches wide by 44inch drop (can't remember the measurements exactly off the top of my head.

So will you need 2 or 3 duvet covers do you think?

What size is a double? 78 x 78?

Probably 3 I think for pencil pleats - does the duvet cover have a 'rightway' up?

If you do this can you post pics? I would love to do this as just about to move but can't sew, don't own a sewing machine but am horrified by the cost of curtains!!! (Inherited our current ones).

If I used those clip rings do I need to gather the material. We are just about to move to a new house with loads of windows!!

My mum did it for me in my old house. The fabric was one and half time the width of the window rather than two and it worked fine. The curtains had normal header tape on. You can use separate black out linings depending on how you choose to hang the curtains.

You can make no-sew curtains pretty easily using fabric tape/and or fabric glue. Glue wide ribbon to the back to hang then up to create a gathered look at the top or use the ribbon to make tab top curtains. Stick the black out linings on using Velcro so its easy to remove when washing etc.

Yes. Used ready made blackout linings and double duvet cover. Check size of cover v size of window, being careful to allow for pleats etc but no reason why not.

V Interested in this as I have a very small Window and 2 gorgeous pillowcases that would fit perfectly (size and decor) think i will be busy this weekend!

I got cheap blackout curtains off ebay and used duvet covers so they matched the bedding. Easy enough to measure with a little overlap around edges.
Best tip is cut the duvet a few inches longer than actual curtains and hem separately so once curtains are up the duvet fabric hangs slightly longer and don't sew bottom of duvet to actual curtains as they will hang better (and will be more forgiving if other edges aren't perfect.)