Curtains for the Nursery

Once James started sleeping through the night, we were so very thankful; however, he started waking up for the day much earlier.  He used to sleep until 7:00/7:30, but now he was waking at 6:00/6:30 - that's before Ray gets up to get ready for work and it's way earlier than I wanted to be out of bed.  So one night we decided to put dark towels over his window to see if blocking out the early morning light made a difference.  I'm happy to say that I think it really has made a difference!  Since then, he typically sleeps until somewhere between 7:15-8:30.  But the towels over the window looked ugly and they were a pain to take on and off each day.  So, I decided to make some curtains for his bedroom.  I didn't like any of the blackout curtains I saw in stores or online, so I decided to make my own.  The nursery is decorated with turquoise and giraffes and I found the perfect fabric on Fabric.com to make my dream curtains come true.  I ordered the fabric, read lots of tutorials on Pinterest for how to make curtains, and went to Bed Bath & Beyond to buy the blackout fabric, the curtain rod, and the hooks.  I love this fabric!

Lisa came over to help me think through measuring and cutting the fabric.  I'm sure it sounds simple, but I wanted each panel to match exactly and I needed all my giraffes lining up.  It took about an hour to measure and cut the fabric and I'm shocked at how well it turned out.

Next, Ray ironed the fabric for me.  I don't really like ironing and Ray just jumped on it without me having to beg at all.  I was so thankful!  Neither Ray nor I know how to sew, so we used a fabric tape to take care of the hem.  It did a great job.  Ray just had to iron the tape on the fabric and it stuck very well.  

After the panels were complete, we had to hang the curtain rod.  Ray did this for me while James and I played in his room.  Once we hung the panels, I just hung the blackout curtains behind the panels - I didn't want to attach them together in case I decide to redecorate and change the fabric of the panels one day down the road.

So here's the before picture-

And after...

I'm so happy with how everything turned out!  Not only will the early morning sun be blocked out, but now we also have some nice curtains!