Nursery Evolution: Windows

We have curtains...finally!  

I picked up this Fredrika fabric last month from Ikea, but the last few weeks have been marked by swollen feet, so I kept putting off curtain construction.  The baby is due this Saturday and last weekend I made a deal with her...she just had to wait until I got the curtains finished and then she was more than welcome to make her appearance.  Good thing I finished them up tonight, because I'm experiencing some contractions as I type this.  Don't worry...it's still undecided as to whether these are real ones or Braxton Hicks ones, so we're just waiting it out at this point.

So back to the curtains...I love this fabric.  It suits the room really well.  It's pretty heavy duty fabric, so when it's lined with the blackout liner fabric, they feel more like drapes than curtains.  Anyway, I bought four yards of Fredrika and four yards of blackout fabric (with a 50% off coupon at Joann's).  It turned out that I had just enough for both windows.  Four yards was actually just a lucky guess.  

I used this tutorial for directions on how to make lined curtains.  It features a blind hem, which I had never done before, so that was a learning experience.  I'm not quite sure that I had the stitch lengths accurately configured.  You're not supposed to see the ticks on the front of the fabric, but they are pretty visible upon a close inspection:

And here's what the other side of a blind hem stitch looks like:

The blackout curtain liner fabric was chosen after reading YHL's post on their nursery curtains.  I hate mini blinds, so I had taken down the ones that came with the house.  I didn't want to install them again, so blackout liners seemed to be a good choice.  

Here's what the curtains look like closed during the middle of the day:

Light still gets through, but it is significantly less than it would be without the liner.  (P.S. Aren't they pretty?)

I also lined the valance on the other window.  It probably didn't need it, because I decided to keep the roller blind that came with the house, but I wanted to keep things consistent.  I didn't add any fabric to the sides, so the valance does not do much bunching.

Peeking out from under the valance is the roller blind.  I've given most of the roller blinds that came with the house to the Goodwill, because they were all trimmed with this white fancy trim:

I liked the scalloped edge, but not that fancy trim.  I bought yellow and orange dingle balls to trim the curtain, but decided to put those on the nursery lampshade instead.  I found this other trim at the store and it seemed like a good substitute.  I cut off the white trim and hot glued the new trim to the roller blind.

It's a little hard to see in these pictures, but it looks really good in person.

The final touch for the windows is the curtain hardware.  I found these fabulous rods and tie backs at Lowe's and they are so awesome:

So there you go!  Windows are done and the room is pretty much finished.  Baby is now allowed to emerge!