I originally bought Ikea sheers for my apartment windows, but after spending about a week waking up too early for humanity, I realized it gets quite bright in my room in the mornings.

Curtains are not cheap, however, and I’ve already spent a bit outfitting the rest of my room (don’t worry, pictures are to come!). So I decided to follow this tutorial from my favorite RVA bloggers, Young House Love, to create my own curtains.

I started out by buying 2 yards of fabric from Hobby Lobby. I knew I wanted some kind of grey print. A grey and orange ikat patterned cotton originally caught my eye, but since my room is in shades of purple and grey, I didn’t think it would work out so well. Luckily, a grey chevron patterned cotton really stuck out to me! I love the chevron trend, but I think it sadly will be headed out of style soon, so I’m glad to use it in this apartment for a low investment.

Speaking of an investment, the fabric and seam tape (as requested by YHL) only set me back $14 with my 40% off one item coupon (check the Hob Lob app). Such a great price, considering I already had a $10 rod that I got for my sheers.

I followed their tutorial pretty closely, except I did less measuring. I’m kind of a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants crafter, so I used the peaks of the chevron as guides and it ended up fairly even.

If you guys plan on making the curtains, I highly suggest you follow YHL’s directions, but here’s a quick recap if you’re too lazy to click over:

1. Heat up an iron.

2. Decide your seam allowances based on how much fabric you buy. 2 yards was perfect for my 19 by 34 window.

3. Measure your seams (if you’re not me).

4. Follow the directions on the seam tape that you buy, ironing each side down to make a neat folded edge and testing it after it cools. I had to do some spots twice.

5. On the top side, don’t forget to make a pocket!

6. Hang and enjoy.

One change I made to the YHL design was creating a pocket for the curtain rod rather than buying clippie hooks. I thought it would look sleeker and go with my overall design better that way.

Drumroll please….check out my $14 curtains and let me know what you think!