How to Make an Easy Custom DIY Farmhouse Shower Curtain

Is it silly to be excited about a shower curtain?  I hope not because I am very excited to share  this DIY farmhouse shower curtain with you today.  The idea to make my own shower curtain started more than a year ago while at a home decor boutique.  They had a collection of farmhouse shower curtains with various signs on them, in light cotton and although pretty at $136 not happening.

I also really enjoy the farmhouse sayings but as I told you before the same saying wears out its charm for me, and I want to use this shower curtain for awhile.   Instead I created a simple I see London, I see France sign for the bathroom. The sign is easy to do the saying can be quickly updated.

instead of using drop cloth I went shopping for a light inexpensive shower curtain with all those lovely predone button holes.  My knees went weak at the thought of making a dozen button holes, so it was well worth the $11 I paid for the plain shower curtain.

Farmhouse Shower Curtain Tutorial

For supplies you will need.

An inexpensive all white shower curtain

Four yards of inexpensive muslin fabric in light cream (24″ wide)

Fabric paint medium

Painters tape, Stencil brush

Scissors, measuring tape, ruler.

Tutorial for DIY Farmhouse Shower Curtain

Open up, iron and measure the width of your shower curtain (72″.)

Hang the shower curtain to see if it reaches the floor, make a note of the distance from the floor if it doesn’t.

Cut your muslin fabric, 24″ by twice the width of your shower curtain (144″)

Iron the muslin smooth.

Make the Hems

Sew the two side hems first.  Fold the edge over 1/4 inch, press, fold the fabric over again and press creating them hem.  Sew the edge in place with a straight stitch seam.

Fold the bottom of your muslin 1/2 inch, press and then fold over 1 inch. Sew a seam along the edge forming the bottom hem.

Fold the top of your muslin 1/4 inch, press and then fold over 1/2 inch.  Don’t sew.

Painting the White Grain Sack Stripes

The white stripes add a nice soft touch to the farmhouse shower curtain, and as the muslin I chose was cream I added white stripes to match the purchased shower curtain.  You could use white muslin and paint soft grey stripes I think it would be really pretty, depending on your other bathroom decor.

Using a ruler measure  ? inches up from the edge of the bottom seam.  Apply the tape, continue measuring as you move along the muslin, adding tape as you go.

Once the first tape is done, measure an inch, and do a second strip of tape, another inch and do a third strip of paint.

Mix together fabric paint medium with white latex paint according to the instructions on your container.  For mine I mixed it 1 part paint to ?? parts fabric medium.

Working on a flat surface  with a stencil brush. Dip just the very end of the brush into the paint.Wipe some of the paint off onto a paper towel before applying to the fabric.  Paint starting on the tape and pulling the brush into the middle of the painted stripe.  Painting in this direction prevents the paint from bleeding under the tape.

Once you have the stripes painted, let dry very well. (I left mine overnight).  Once dry, remove your tape, and seal the paint by pressing with an iron.  The subtle stripes look so nice.

Gathering the Muslin Fabric

As the gathering for this fabric is very long, I suggest gathering the fabric with a needle and a heavy thread (like embroidery thread) instead of using the sewing machine.

Make sure your thread is long enough about 7 feet, so you can gather it all at once. Sew along edge of the top hem in 1/4 inch stitches.

You can place a pen mark 1/4 inch wide on the side of your thumb if it helps you gauge the stitch length.  It took me under 10 minutes sew the stitches so it goes really quickly. Once sewn leave long tails on both ends of the thread and tie them with very large knots.

Attaching the Muslin to the Shower Curtain

You want the shower curtain frill end to just dust the floor of your bathroom.  Remember when I suggested prehanging your curtain? If the purchased shower curtain didn’t hang to the floor, use the measurement and align the bottom edge of your frill that much lower than your shower curtain.

If the purchased shower curtain hung against the floor, you can line up the bottom hem of the muslin frill to the bottom of the shower curtain.

Begin by pinning the short edge of the muslin frill to the edge of the shower curtain.  Do this on both ends.

Laying your shower curtain flat, (I used my ironing board), pull out your gathers so they line up as evenly as possible across your shower curtain.  It helps to pin as you go, spreading the gathers a foot at a time.  Once you have them all spread out adjust if you need to.  This part is a little bit fiddly, but its not hard.

Your shower curtain is almost done,  the frill is already pinned and spread out all the way across, but its a wide frill.   To make sure the frill is hanging evenly, line up the bottom of the frill with the bottom of the shower curtain to make sure aligned.  Once I felt everything was good I hung up the shower curtain to double check. Then removed it and sewed the frill to the shower curtain.

Here is the final finished shower curtain. Its so bright and cheerful and can be used year around.

This bathroom reno began with new granite, and tiles.  I made an inexpensive Brown Paper I See London I See France sign, and will share a tutorial for the long wood shelf soon.