I have stenciled fabric and as long as it is flat before stenciling it has worked well. For the size of a curtain I would lay the fabic out on a large floor not working on a small surface for it would be hard to keep the pattern level. After the paint was dry I ironed the fabric toset the paint and at that point it still felt painted but then I washed the fabric and it became smoother. Also very little paint on a roller worked best for texture and design reasons. I stenciled three wall of my hall recently and only used a craft size bottle of paint for all the walls. Buy a twin white sheet and practice first befor investing in the fifty dollar panels and see what you think. Good luck.

That's so funny that you should post this arlosmom. I actualy found that website because I was looking for a stencil to imitate those West Elm drapes! I found a couple of sites online where people have done exactly that. Here's one of them with instructions: Stenciled drapes, though I think that the stencil on the site I linked to previously is a better match to the West Elm drapes, and I'm not crazy about the color that the blogger used.

I was thinking about making the drapes myself to get the length that I wanted from some linen blend fabric from Joanne's.

You need to wash the fabric first- to remove the sizing. You don't need fabric paint- regular acrylic craft paint will work very well. The paint goes very far. after stenciling let sit for a day. then iron the back side of the fabric to set the paint- it draws it in a bit. then you put in a dryer to set the paint more.
remember less paint is more when it comes to stenciling, you want shades and even areas of white showing to look authentic. lay your fabric out, and space out your design to see where to start and finish- both up and down and across your fabric. and practice first on similar fabric so you get the feel of how the weave linen will behave.
once you start stencilling it will go very fast, you will be surprised. oh and I learned from a nationally known stenciller, back when it was all the rage.I still have many pieces stenciled with the acrylic paints, and they still are in good shape- 20 some years later.

"oh and I learned from a nationally known stenciller........"

cooperbailey - let me guess.....Adele Bishop?

Cooper - did you use mix a fabric medium with the paint when you did your fabric stenciling?

I used to paint on muslin, so I know muslin works. lol.

I did a shower curtain once many years ago, and it held up very well. I say do it! And in a very frail attempt to top cooperbailey, I will say that I purchased my paint and stamps at Jocasta Innes' store, when she had one just off Portobello Road in London.

I'm psyched! I just stopped at the craft store on my way home from work and bought some acrylic paint. I looked at the fabric paint, but the colors were garish, so I took a chance that regular acrylic would work. It sounds like it will. I have to figure out where I have a huge flat surface to paint on.

Roarah, I saw your stenciled hallway and it gave me inspiration. Then I saw terricks' link and got excited to try it on curtains. Terricks, that's so funny -- those are my curtains that I want!!! And thanks too for the new link to detailed instructions. That will be so helpful.

Cooperbaily, any idea what happens if I don't wash the fabric first? Will the paint not take well? I ask because they are 100% linen and will be a pain to iron well (and I'm a little lazy). I'm not planning to launder the curtains often after I hang them if that matters. I have the same linen curtains, not stenciled, in my tv room. I'll look upstairs with my scrap fabric to see if I have any left from when I hemmed them to experiment on.

Yeaaa!!! I'm off to order my stencil!!

arlosmom, are the Ikea drapes a natural linen color or white white? And how long are they? It would probably be a lot easier to buy ready made drapes than to make them myself. Though I don't have an Ikea near me. The closest one is 5 hours away.

terricks, the ikea curtains come in both natural linen and white white (and pink too and maybe gray). I will be using white for my stencil project. The website says they're 98". I think buying them ready made is much much much easier than making them! I'm linking them on ikea's website below. For $50 a pair (not a panel), they're fabulous. All you have to do is hem them.

I have both the natural and the white in my house. Here's the natural; I tried them in the living room last year, but they didn't work with the paint color. I ended up using them upstairs.

And here's the white in my tv room (please ignore the dog's chair):

Here is a link that might be useful: ikea curtains

At $50.00 a pair for linen panels, you could not do better by buying fabric and sewing your own. You'd spend a lot more. If you check ebay you might even find them for less.

I've also been thinking about doing this in my dining room. First got the idea from this blog (linked below).

Please come back and let us know how it goes. And pics!

Here is a link that might be useful: Painted curtains

Sorry was out on the road yesterday.
Not sure I think the sizing prevents the fabric from absrbing the paint. But for $50 bucks I might risk it.
Nope, it was Gladys Grace- she had a line of stencil paints and stencils. she did awesome workshops for quilt guilds and big quilt shows like the national one in Lancaster. She came to my local quilt guild back in the 80s,
Have fun with it!They will be awesome.

I was looking through the blogosphere for pictures of drapes, and found this great tutorial on stenciling drapes, thought of you:

Here is a link that might be useful: Stenciled drapes

Arlosmom,
I love that shade of green on your TV room walls. Can you tell me what color that is? It looks great with your wood floors.

For a large flat surface try using a piece of plywood set up on a table or on top of a few garbage cans. If it were me I'd cover the plywood with paper and I'd tape the fabric down so it wouldn't slip and slid while I was working on it. A large piece of wood like a 2x4 that has a nice straight side can help keep the stencil on the straight.

jillinnj and sonicmom, thanks for the links. I'm plunging into this project with little idea of what I'm doing other than what I see on the internet, so I really appreciate all the tutorials. Everyone says this is pretty easy, so I'm feeling somewhat confident. I used to be crafty in my former life.

Graywings, the color in the tv room is BM Sandy Hook Gray. I love it. I've now used that color in my tv room, pantry, and whole stairwell.

Carol, thanks for the suggestions. I think I'm going to just set up on the floor of one of the little-used bedrooms with a tarp underneath cardboard. I'll definitely tape the fabric down. The 2x4 suggestion is good; I hadn't thought of that and we have plenty of spare 2x4s.

I think I'm pretty much ready to get started now. I snagged lots of cardboard from my neighbor's recycling yesterday morning. My stencil arrived Monday, and yesterday I got fabric medium and spray adhesive from the craft store. I have 2 colors of paint to play around with. I'm aiming for a light, neutral camel color. I went to Ikea to get my linen curtains, and saw some nice white 100% cotton tab tops for only $19.99 a pair!!! I don't know how Ikea does it. So I went with those instead of the $50 linen ones. The whole project including all my supplies should come in under $130 for 3 windows.

Question for anyone still reading this: should I carry the stencil design onto the tab tops? I'm thinking maybe yes, but not sure how it would look...

Arlosmom, I can't wait to see how your curtains turn out. Did you get the single stencil?
I am going to be near an Ikea in a couple of weeks so I'll check out their curtains, though I need something really long, so I may end up making my own drapes from the linen fabric.

terriks, the Ikea Lenda curtains I just bought also came in 118". I didn't check the price, but if 98" was $19.99, how expensive could the longer ones be? And yes, I got the single stencil. I might start experiment with it tomorrow after work. I'll post updates later.

Stenciling fabric is actually simple, however please don't skip any of the recommended steps. Pre-wash, machine or air dry (whichever you want to do later), iron fabric, tape fabric taut, and clean the stencil frequently. I've only done small projects using a pouncing brush so am not sure how a roller will work but be careful to remove excess paint before rolling.

You can get "fabric medium" to use with acrylic craft paints. I used the paints alone but didn't need to wash my projects much after. "Some info here about using medium. "

Arlosmom - have you started stenciling yet? I'd like to know how it's going. Do you have to clean the stencil off each time you move it? I was thinking about getting the larger "production" stencil, because I have to stencil drapes for 5 windows!

I was near an Ikea this week, so I bought a bunch of curtains. I bought the Ritva in the off white color, but they didn't have the 118 inch length in stock, so I also bought some of the beige Lenda drapes, that I hope to use to add a solid border at the bottom. I am going to take the Lenda tie back with me to the craft store and choose paint to match that color.

terriks, I haven't made much progress, but I've played around and learned a little that might be helpful to you.

I started stenciling with the ikat stencil and was really unhappy with how it was turning out. It had way too much painted area and too little unpainted white fabric. The fabric was sucking up gobs of paint, and I wasn't able to get the paint even enough to look good with sunlight shining through. I tried diluting the paint with more and more of the paint medium, but that didn't seem to help. I used the foam roller and wiped off the excess paint, just like the instructions said, but it just wasn't working.

So I ordered a different stencil. I went with the kaliedascope pattern, from the same website as the first stencil. I like this stencil much better in terms of the painted-area-to-unpainted-area ratio. The result was much more airy looking. I practiced on the same curtain panel that I already ruined with the ikat stencil (thank goodness for $10 curtain panels!). But now I'm re-thinking what color paint to use, so I haven't moved forward with painting. And in the meantime, I put the unpainted white Ikea curtains up in the living room and am enjoying the serene look of the plain white curtains. I'm still planning to do the stenciling, but have temporarily lost steam.

I found that I did not have to clean the stencil off as I moved it to new spots across the curtain. I thought I would, but no paint was getting on the back and messing it up. I think this was because the spray adhesive kept the stencil snug to the fabric. Even with the ikat stencil which used so much paint, I wasn't having to clean it off. I was tempted by the production stencil too, but I don't think you need to spend the extra money -- the regular size worked just fine.

Hope this helps!

Arlosmom, thanks for sharing your experience so far. I think that I will buy some fabric similar to my curtains and practice on it. I'm 5 hours away from Ikea, so I don't want to practice on the curtains that I bought. I'm wondering if I will get better results if I use a stencil brush with very little paint. That way I will be able to control the amount of paint that goes on the fabric better.

I bought a bottle of Martha Stewart craft paint in Putty. It is a near perfect match to the color of the beige Lenda drapes.