This was a daunting project, but boy am I happy I did it. Because of these simple additions we stay cool in the hot sun and we get a lot of privacy too. These curtains, shades, and bug screens are something we use EVERY day. We don’t always boil a pot of water in the van, but we always use our curtains. I probably should have posted this 16 months ago when I was doing it, rather than while we’re traveling in South America, but hey, we’ve had other stuff going on.
I made curtains, sun shades, and bug screens. This was my first serious sewing project. I’ve made simple curtains for our house, but nothing that actually needed to fit exact dimensions and have a way of being secured in a moving vehicle. Please excuse any unclear terms and ask questions in the comments section. I grew up hearing sewing terms in Polish-dzieki Mamusiu i Babciu! The toughest were the curtains, so I broke them down step by step. Afterwards, the sunshades and bug screens were pretty straight forward so I just provided a lot of pictures so that you can see how I did them. Jump ahead to any one of the three:
Curtains
Sun Shades
Bug Screens
CURTAINS
Curtains provide privacy, but if you take the next step and insulate your curtains, you will also have a van that keeps a desired temperature. You will be very happy when you’re out in the extreme temperatures of the desert-like we were in the Steens Mountains, July 2016 or in Central Argentina, January 2017.
To make my curtains I used 6 different components and broken down the process into 9 steps:
- Reflection (Reflectix)
- Insulation (Thinsulate)
- Durable Encasing Fabric (Curtains from Goodwill)
- Patterned Fabric (Pretty Fabric)
- Magnets
- Snaps
1. Reflection: Reflectix. We love Reflectix…how could you not? It’s relatively cheap, sturdy, easy to find, and does a pretty good job. It’s basically bubble wrap with mylar foil on the outside. You can buy big rolls of it at home improvement stores (Home Depot or Lowes).
Cut out the Reflectix. Place the Reflectix directly on the window. Trace and cut out enough Reflectix to fit the window glass perfectly, this will become your template. I tried measuring the windows multiple times, but I found it was much easier to trace the pattern and cut the Reflectix while in the van and then make sure it was a perfect fit by fitting it up to the window.
2. Insulation: Thinsulate. We had a decent amount of Thinsulate left over from insulating our ceiling and walls. I gladly used this inside the curtains.
Cut out your insulation. You’ve already got the shape and size cut from the Reflectix. Use a permanent marker to copy this same dimension onto the white side of a piece of Thinsulate. Use sturdy scissors and take many breaks…this was painful! I used 3M adhesive spray, in a well ventilated area, to attach the white side of the Thinsulate to the Reflectix.
There are many insulating materials out there (denim, foam board, spray foam, fiberglass). We used Thinsulate. This is the same material that come in puffy jackets that are not down. We liked that Thinsulate was lightweight, flexible, antimicrobial, and, most all, because it is repels water. It is pricey though. I experimented a bit with the van sliding door, I used a similar but less costly fabric from JoAnn’s that is specifically designed for making curtains, similar to Insul/Shine fabric. It has 4 layers or so. This stuff was thinner than my Reflectix and Thinsulate combo, but not as sturdy and it does not hold back the heat as well.
3. Durable Encasing Fabric: Goodwill Curtains. This was the part I fretted about most…design, design, design!!! Durable material from a fabric store is pricey and you don’t have many options in color or pattern. We also wanted something that wouldn’t look dirty after just a couple of days. I knew that we would be putting on and taking off the curtains regularly (which we actually do with half of them, the curtains alongside the bed are a bit of a hassle to put on and take off so those usually stay on unless we want to take in the view in the morning).
Enter used curtains. I found that curtains were usually thicker than regular cotton fabric for sewing, and previously used curtains were low risk with my novice sewing skills (if I made a mistake it was no big loss, I could just start over by buying new fabric). I also liked using corduroy, but it was a bit on the heavy side and can be difficult to sew in a standard machine! Consider your color choice too, darker fabrics will hide dirt a bit better. I was lucky to find all my curtains at Goodwill (on a couple of trips), I love that place! In terms of pricing, my Goodwill charged $7 per curtain panel and about $3 per largish piece of fabric. At an economical fabric store you will pay around $7-$10 per yard for a material of this thickness/durability.
Measure out your durable encasement fabric. Start by doubling the size of your Reflectix/Thinsulate shape. It’s best if you can fold over a large piece of fabric (this also eliminates sewing an extra side). Add on at least 1.5″ in all directions for the border. Add more if you are just starting to learn how to sew…like I was…because you will inevitably create a wider stitch than a more seasoned seamstress. Some of our curtains have a 2.5″ border! Remember that the border will have to be sewn together on the left/back side (the side that you won’t see because it will be on the inside) (0.5″) and it will also hold your magnet/duct tape strip, and eventually also have your snaps attached.
4. Patterned Fabric. I wanted something cute, but I didn’t want to spend a ton of $$$. So we got enough fabric to cover the Reflectix “template”. This means my cute fruit & veggie larder pattern is on just one side of the curtains, with a nice boarder.
Use the Reflectix template to cut out your patterned fabric. Iron and hem the patterned fabric, this is very time consuming and boring, but it will last longer and look much better. Before stuffing the insulation I pinned (yes PIN– you will be very happy you did) and sewed the hemmed patterned fabric onto my durable encasing fabric.
This was somewhat tricky, the patterned fabric came out crooked a couple of times on several of the curtains and I had to redo the sewing. I thought about using the 3M Adhesive Spray, and gluing the two fabrics together, but I wasn’t sure the fabric would stick together forever and I was worried that I would not get it smooth (you only have one chance with the adhesive spray).
5. Stick your magnets in place. Turn the fabric left side out and duct tape your magnets to the edge of the encasing fabric every 6″ or so. Make sure you put the tape on the side that will be touching the metal, not the side that has the pattern, that’s your inside side. This makes a big difference with how well the curtains stay put. Consider sewing the magnet in place at this point (see end of Step 6)
6. Time to Seal & Stuff the curtain! Lay down your two pieces of fabric (inside-out) and match up your corners. Pin it together and sew 3 sides (sew 2 sides if one of them is the long piece of fabric fold) together, leaving the 4th side as your opening where you will stuff your Reflectix/Thinsulate. Think about the end product here. I eventually started making rounded corners by re-doing the stitch until it looked nice.
Sew the duct taped magnets to the fabric for extra piece of mind, as you are sewing the edges together. Turn the fabric inside-out and stuff in the reflectix/insulation duo. Sew the 4th edge as neatly as you can. This wont be a pretty as the other two sides, but you don’t have a better choice. As always, pinning helps.
I took the extra step and sewed around each magnet after the curtain was all closed up. I didn’t want any bunching to happen because magnets were moving around. You could try to sew the magnet in place in Step 5, but I felt more comfortable doing this as a finishing step.
7. Secure the Insulation. It’s important to secure the Reflectix/Thinsulate duo into the center of the curtain so that you have flaps around the outside to attach to the side of the window. Also you want the weight/stress on your magnets evenly distributed and you don’t want your insulation flopping around or leaning away from the window. Start by using pins to hold the Reflectix/Thinsulate into place. Sew as close to the insulation as you can. Check to make sure your insulation is not “walking” and distorting the other edges.
8. Attaching Snaps
Spacing of female snap parts. Oh snap. You are such a wonderful thing. I only used 2-3 snaps at most per curtain because it required drilling male snap receptors into the wall of the van. I also realized the magnets do most of the work of holding up the curtains and this way there is less damage/invitation for rust to the body of the van. With the help of the magnets 1 snap easily holds up a back door curtain. If your curtain is a bit small, you will find the snaps do a great job of keeping the curtain in place. They’re also a quick way to attach your curtain to the correct place. If you’re using only magnets, you will probably have to re-position the curtain several times to get it just where you want it.
Attaching the female snap parts. Unfortunately the vice grip attachment/ tool did not produce the best seal on the fabric, the snap would come out of the fabric when we pulled them off the window. This snap, grommet, and rivet tool kit was a bit over kill. Perhaps you can pick up a cheap pair of vice grips and then purchase the specific die and punches to cinch the male and female parts together. Also, save yourself the frustration and buy the cheap $3 install tool, used with a hammer, MUCH better results for making holes in the webbing or curtain. Our set of 40 snap sets came with the $3 install tool.
As our journey has progressed and we have put these curtains to good use, we have had to repair snaps numerous times. Perhaps it’s the low quality of the snaps themselves, or it may be my inadequacy with attaching them to the curtains. It could also because we bought different brands of male and female portions, and that fit just a bit too snug. We use a butter knife to separate the female and male parts of the snap, this prevents the female part of the snap from coming out of the fabric.
Drilling holes to secure male snap receivers. Try to stay out of metal surfaces to prevent corrosion, although it can’t be avoided sometimes.
9. Go throw that curtain on the window and impress your friends!
TIPS:
-Use high quality webbing, screws, and snaps. These will get a lot of use!
SUN SHADES
For sun shades on the front windshield and driver and passenger windows, I did a very similar process but did not use Thinsulate. Instead, I just used one layer of Reflectix. I wanted something lightweight for these windows because there is no metal surface to attach to and I knew they would need to be stored most of the time. These sun shades do a great job of reflecting light, but don’t do a lot to insulate the van when temperatures drop.
TIPS:
-Use a white fabric on the outside (seen from the outside), so it will reflect as much light as possible and a dark fabric on the inside.
-The shapes of these windows are very irregular, so take your time and measure it out twice or make a pattern out of cardboard.
-Use high quality webbing, screws, and snaps. These will get a lot of use!
BUG SCREENS
Last but not least are my mosquito/bug screens. We use these, but I’m not sure if they’re a necessity (we haven’t used the back door screen, ever 🙁 but you should know that I hate bugs and I have finally purchased an $8 bug zapper!). Usually if the bugs get very bad, we climb inside and open the screened window. If its still daytime I will put on long sleeves and long pants and find a breeze to sit in. I made four screens. Two screens for the front windows that are just sleeves that slide over the door. A screen for the sliding door and a screen for the back door.
Screen making is a bit of a frustrating activity because the mesh is very thin and thus difficult to work with. You must also be careful not to rip the mesh while sewing (and when putting it on the van). If you look at the last set of photos below, you will see how I first laid out the fabric on the door to see how it hung and how to orient the fabric with the webbing. Try to fold the webbing in half and sew it onto the edge of the screen so that you have a nice border (where you can put magnets or snaps if you wish).
Some TIPS:
-Start with the easiest! For me this was the screen for the back doors.
-For the Sliding Door, buy a high quality house door screen for pets and add magnets and snaps to your liking.
-Use high quality screens for No-See-Ums bugs (tiniest holes) so that NO bugs pass through. I wish I had purchased better screen materials to start off with…considering how much work I invested into this project. We’ve seen the small sandflies go right through the screen.
-For the Back Doors screen, focus on installing snaps on the inside of the vehicle with a couple of magnets to secure your screen, magnets are too finicky for such a big screen.
-On the driver and passenger window screens, use magnets on the outside bottom edge to create a tighter seal.
Enjoy!
So how well does it work? Do you guys ever get too hot in the van?
The insulation does an amazing job keeping the heat out and the warmth in. Of course, like any car, eventually it will get hot or cold. But for the most part, we stay pretty cool, especially if we turn on our ceiling fan and portable 12V marine fan.
That was a ton of work, but they look great!
You forgot to tell everyone that you took out all the wall panels in Lola and put it lots of insulation, so you have that as well as the curtains.
Thank You! It was a fun project too, I’m impressed I finished it.
As for the insulation we put in the walls Todd will have to start posting about our buildout, then we can share all about the three layers of insulation we put into Lola’s walls.
Great work! Impressive. Sadly, I lack domestic skills so no sowing for me. My ex-wife had an exhausting list of these deficiencies. LOL I bought some ready-made sun screens for the sprinter cab, and want to make some Reflectix covers for the windows using Velcro in the corners. I have the Reflectix but haven’t started this project yet. Do you think small 1” x 1” Velcro squares will work? The class C RV windows are flat.
You would be surprised how much time I spent getting acquainted with the machine and re-doing simple stitches…it can be done!!!
1×1 Velcro may be a little small, the thinsulate tends to weigh down the entire “curtain”. I would also be concerned about the glue melting off the Velcro backing. Perhaps you can stitch it to the fabric though?
Hello, I made some similar window insulation. Reflectix on one side and thinsulate on the other side. I connected them with a spray and a border of gorilla tape and then made pillow cases to put them in. These were for the small skinny motion windows. After I put these in I must say they work great. But then I felt the window and it was burning hot. I was reading some other blogs and some people have said if the windows get too hot the window seals could be damaged and some people have mentioned some windows have cracked. I am curious about your experience with the temperature of the windows. I have read some people put the reflectix on the outside of the window when parked. I am thinking of using them in the winter and partially in the summer but making sure the windows don’t get too hot. Still trying to decide. What are your thoughts and experience with this issue? thank you for your thoughts.
Hi Andrea, thanks for sharing your question!
I never considered the issue of the windows getting too hot, but I suppose it’s a very valid concern. Ours would certainly warm up quite a bit, but I was able to touch them without getting burned…we have had no damage to date and we have been at some extremely high altitude places in Bolivia as well as hot and sunny in tropical locations. (Not sure if it makes a difference, but our windows are also tinted.)
Absolutely, go ahead and mount the reflectix on the outside of the van, that can only help,
my only concern might be keeping the reflectix clean afterwards and making sure it doesn’t break down too quickly from sun exposure. Anything to keep the van cooler!!!
Good Luck! So glad the post was helpful.