FREE Window Valances from Bed Skirt

Welcome to Thrifty Thursday!  I have been meaning to do and post this for MONTHS and am just now getting around to it!  At Christmas, my mother bought my girls new bed things.  They came as "bed-in-a-bag" sets.  Each set had sheets, shams, pillowcases, and a bed skirt.  My girls have twin over full bunk beds, so the bed skirts can't be used.  I was bummed that the bed skirts were going to go to waste, but I held on to them just in case.  A few weeks later I was trying to decide what to do about window treatments in their room.  The prices on some of these things are CRAZY!  The thought ran through my head that "valances are just a long piece of fabric with a sleeve sewn in them!"  Then it hit me.  I could use the bed skirts to make window valances.  No money spent, no bed skirts wasted.  This made me happy, happy, happy!

The first thing you want to do is wash and dry the bed skirt to make sure all shrinking is done.  Now, separate the bed skirt fabric from the funky liner that goes under the mattress.  You will be left with three rectangle pieces (two long, one short).  You will need to use the long pieces for this project.  Set the short piece aside for another day or throw it in the scrap fabric stack.  The edge where it was connected to the liner will look like this.

You will then need to fold the edge in by two inches and iron a crease.  If you feel more confident using pins, pin the fabric in place.  It is up to you. Be careful as you are doing this, not to iron on the threads that connected the fabric to the liner.  These threads are plastic and will melt....STINKY.

From here, go ahead and sew a seam down the entire length of the fabric at about 1/4 from the raw edge.  This will make a sleeve for the curtain rod to slide through. Repeat these steps until the number of valances you need are completed. 

Now, just throw the curtain rod in and install!

Not bad for a 5 minute free project, huh?   Try it, and let me know how yours turn out!