Curtains for the Princess bedroom

I made curtains for my daughter Victoria.  Well, they're semi-homemade (think Sandra Lee).  A BIG thanks to my friend Heather, who was donating the panels, rod and hardware after redesigning her daughter's room.  The rod was a great fit for the wide window.  The panels were too short.  The color was great, so I wanted to use them, but needed to get creative.  Here are a couple of "before" pics of the window (it's big).

Here's what I did.  Go below the pics for more detailed steps/instructions as well as the AFTER pics!

1.  I bought 3 yards of pure white eyelet fabric, and 3 yards of ribbon ($13).  (The green panels were each about 1.5 yards wide.) 
2.  Cut the eyelet fabric across the fold line, so that you have two 3-yard panels that are about 18" from the cut line to the selvage.
3.  Using a seam ripper, undo the bottom hem on the top panels (green).  4.  Cut 1/2" below the folded edge.
4.  On the selvage edge of each panel baste a long stitch 1/2" from the edge, and then again 1/4" closer to the edge, as shown.  Sewing two, rather than one, will give you a safety net as you gather the fabric, so that if one of the threads breaks, you can still gather your material with the other.
5.  Gather the fabric by pulling the top threads with one hand and the fabric in the other.  Pull in opposite directions.  Continue until you have gathered the fabric to almost a 1.5 yard width across.
6.  Along each of the sides, fold in the edge 1/4", then again and pin. 
7.  Sew the hem on each side.
8.  Pin the sides of the gathered edge, right sides together, to the panel.
9.  Sew right sides together, below panel fold/gathered stitch line.
10. Serge or trim with pinking shears to clean up the edges of what you just sewed.  If you have no serger or pinking shears, stitch again 1/8" in (closer to the edge) and cut with scissors.
11. Fold in and pin your bottom hem.
12. Stitch your bottom hem.
13. Pin ribbon over the "old" hem stitch marking on the original panel, to hide what it once "was."
14.  Stitch the ribbon on the top and bottom.
15.  HANG your new curtains on the rod!!! And SMILE that you did the project! :)

And here is the finished product:

Thank you Heather for the hardware and green panels!  I love projects like this, they're easy and very rewarding to see the end product!  And it's also a great way to reuse something that someone else no longer wants!