How to Make a Cloth Headboard

Cut your fabric into 61-inch lengths---for a queen-sized headboard---by snipping a notch every 61 inches and ripping along the width of the fabric. Alternatively, make a striped headboard by cutting strips of various widths by snipping notches along the short side of each 2-yard panel and carefully ripping along the length of the fabric. Ripping is an easy way to create a straight edge; you can also use scissors or a rotary cutter, but be careful to cut in a straight line.

Pin your fabric sections together by laying two strips (right sides together) and pinning along one side, a half-inch from the edge. Open up the strips like a book, then lay another strip on top (right sides together), and pin along the edge without any pins. Continue in this fashion until all the strips are pinned together to make a panel of fabric 2 yards by 61 inches wide for a queen-sized bed.

Thread your sewing machine and begin stitching along the pinned edges, maintaining a half-inch seam allowance and removing pins as you sew. Back-stitch as you start and as you reach the end of each seam.

Press each seam flat, opening the seam in the back like a butterfly, with an iron. Trim any hanging threads.

Measure, fold and pin back the half-inch hem along both the left and right sides of your 61-inch-by-2-yard panel. Fold wrong sides together so that the sides of your fabric panel appear finished when you look at the front.

Sew along the half-inch hem on each side, removing pins as you go and back-stitching at each end. Trim excess thread.

Measure a half-inch from the top (60-inch) end of your panel. Fold down and press flat. Measure another 3 inches from this end, then fold down and pin in place.

Sew along the half-inch fold to create a curtain rod tube, keeping your sewing machine needle a quarter-inch from the edge. Trim excess threads.

Repeat steps 7 and 8 on the bottom end of your panel, but only fold in 1¼ inches (rather than 3 inches) on the second fold.

Press the entire panel.

Slip the 1-inch dowel into the smaller tube on the bottom end of the panel for a weight, then hang the panel from the curtain rod with the larger tube on the top of the panel.

Hang the panel at the head of your bed using the curtain rod hardware. Standard ceilings are 7 to 7½ feet tall, and most beds sit at least 2 feet off the floor. Your panel should be plenty long enough to hang just a few inches from the ceiling and still conceal the weighted end behind your mattress.