Easy Blackout Curtains

Look, let's be honest with each other.  If you have a young child, they're probably going to bed around 8ish and wake up around 7ish (Addie is 8:30 to 6:30).  Not too bad, but it gets difficult as we get into the summer months and our days our longer.  Which is awesome, but if you have a little one, these daylight hours can be killer on their sleep schedule.  So I had been thinking about tackling another craft project and this one I kind of just "winged" it.

Totally should have been sleeping here but the curtains weren't up yet so I had to stop and put them up so she could take her nap.

So I already had the curtains in her room that I purchased a couple years back from Target.  Next, I knew I needed black out fabric so I headed out to JoAnn Fabric to find the fabric.  I purchased 3 yards at 6.99/yard plus I had a 50% off coupon so I only paid $10 and some change for the fabric.  Then I was thinking, how do I want to attach this fabric.  I really didn't want to sew it on so I purchased some velcro.

I purchased 2 of these and only applied to the top of the curtain.  I wasn't really concerned about the bottom or sides at this point and wanted to make a change pretty quickly.  If you don't have sewing skills, make sure you buy this "heat activated adhesive". 

So you line up your adhesive on your black out fabric and then match up the other piece on your curtains.  Make sure the adhesive is sticking to the "ugly" side of your fabric & curtain.  Once you have your adhesives where you want them, bust out your ironing board and set your iron on the highest setting with the steam on.

You'll see in the picture above that the adhesive is on the bottom side of the black out fabric and I used an old towel to make sure I didn't burn the fabric.  Hold the steam on for about 90 seconds and move to the next spot.  Continue until you're done with the first piece of fabric.

 Do the same thing with your curtain.

 Once you're finished, line up your pieces and hang on the curtain rod.  Trim off the bottom of the blackout fabric that you don't need.  I still had a bit more than 1/2 a yard leftover that I needed to trim off.

Here are some before & afters. The pictures below look somewhat similar but you can see there really is no light coming through on the right.

The pictures below is what the room looks like with & without the fabric.

I love the picture on the left, Addie's making faces...haha.  The picture on the right is no flash on my camera with the curtains with the fabric.  You can see a little light coming through the side, but for the most part it's a huge impact in the room.  We'll see how it helps as we get further into summer.

-stephanie