Ruffled Shower Curtain Tutorial

So I am trying desperately to get my bathroom re-do finished....and for the most part it is done.  I just need to finish trim around the mirror and hang 2 shelves....you can see a "sneak peek" of the new colors here:

I wanted to share with you how I made the shower curtain.  I've seen these ruffles all over the decorating blogs and I've felt very intimidated to try them....I'm not a really big sew-er....and I just wasn't finding a really clear tutorial.....but I loved them!

Well, I stopped in our local Goodwill and I found a king-sized white sheet trimed in blue lace....perfect for a shower curtain in my newly remodeled bathroom....and for the whopping of price of $2.50 PLUS 25% off I felt like I could try this.....I mean, if I messed up, I was only out two bucks!

The first thing that I did was spread the whole sheet out on the floor.....I took my tape measure and measured my existing shower curtain.  It was about 72 inches x 72 inches....(I accidentally shrunk it...who knew that shower curtains are dry clean only!!)

I took my measurements and cut extra to make it long enough and wide enough to hem.

Measuring where I wanted the ruffles to go took some trial and error......I finally took my tape measure and measured down 8 inches, 15 inches and 22 inches. 

 I would move from right to left and put a pin in each mark so that I eventually had a straight line of pins across an 8 inch mark, a 15 inch mark and a 22 inch mark.  (This photo already has ruffles because it took me a few attempts....and rows of crooked ruffles.... to figure out how to do this!)


To make the actual ruffles:

I used a hem-measurer-thingy....but you can just use a ruler.....I went along and measured and ironed a two inch fold.

I cut along the unfolded line.....

I opened it and cut along the fold.....

I now had two rows of fabric strips 2 inches wide....

I took the two ends of the fabric strips and sewed them together to make one giant fabric strip 2 inches wide.

Then I just sewed down the middle of the fabric strip....I would fold some fabric forward and then backward.....for a girl who likes order and patterns it drove me crazy to make a random pattern of folds.....I kept wondering if I was repeating the back fold too much....

Truly....it was complete random-ness....just folding and bending the fabric...

And the finished product......

I LOVE it! 

Total cost: $2.00!!!  Now it took me hours of sewing....partly because I have an old  machine and I am terrible at adjusting thread tension which means that for every 12 inches of sewing, my thread would break...grr!......but the payoff for a custom and adorable (and cheap!) shower curtain was well worth it!

I'll try to get those shelves hung soon so that you can see the amazing transformation!