[meowmeow]

I lined them with a heavy blackout material

What exactly was that material? I have light filtering honeycomb blinds on a lot of my windows but would like to make some blinds or curtains that I could use in the event I wanted to shut out all light.

Also pinging our resident prepper thread keeper - hey Kart, some of the folks on the prepping list may be interested in Roos_Girl's new sewing thread. Sewing is a valuable skill for the self-reliant!

[Kartographer]

I would scourer the larger fabric outlets for heavy clearance upholstery type material. Just make sure you check on a dark night that not a single beam of light is escaping.

How Far Away Can You See a Candle at Night?

http://preparednessadvice.com/survival/far-away-can-see-candle-night/#.U6GyJlOQ-NI

[Roos_Girl]

This is the material I used. It's 100% blackout and I'm pretty pleased with the material.

[Roos_Girl]

Regarding the blackout lining showing pin pricks; yes they do! For the baby's room I bought a pair of what was supposed to be blackout curtains from Kmart and I was very disappointed with the amount of light that came through. So I did a very quick, very rough tacking of the Joann blackout liner to the back of them and every single stitch mark is clearly seen across the top. The curtains that I made and put pictures of at the beginning of the thread I took much more time with and made them differently than any "patterns" I've seen for curtains. I actually cut the blackout liner to the same size as the fabric, except shortened the length a couple inches, and then folded the top and both sides like you would do for a hem at the bottom of clothes. There are no pinprick holes where light comes through.

But I just recently decided to put up a blackout curtain behind the "decorative" curtain in our bedroom and for expediency I decided to buy them. I got these from Amazon and am really pleased with them. Put them inside the window frame on a simple tension rod and they do an excellent job of blocking light.