How to Make Curtains Longer

Hey there!

I couldn't take them any longer.
Yup.
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, these curtains were driving me crazy.
This is the room where we spend most of our time... reading, eating, watching tv, blogging...
You name it. It's done here in our family room.
So, it was hard to ignore those short, uneven curtains.

I brought them down even before finding the fabric that would make them longer.

However, before taking them down, I measured and marked how much I wanted to cut.
I randomly picked 12". As you can see in the picture below ---> 12" from the floor.

Each one of my six curtains was marked on both ends -right and left.

Once down I made sure to mark them. Sometimes the height of the rod is different from curtain to curtain, you know, just in case.

Then, each curtain was folded and ironed on the 12" mark. That gave me a line to cut off the lower part.

The fabric I chose to extend the curtains was a plaid, twin size, flat sheet I found at Walmart. It was a very economical solution. At first I looked at fabrics but the three yards - 60" wide fabrics were more expensive than what I wanted to pay for them.
This twin flat sheet was under five bucks. :)

So, in order to bring the curtains all the way down I needed the extensions to be 12" plus the amount for the hem and seam.
I gave the hem 3" and  ½" to the seam to connect it to the curtain. (I don't recommend giving the extra half inch for the seam, later on you'll see why).

After cutting each panel, making sure the lines were identical for each pair of curtains, the hem was ironed. Leaving the total end of each panel at 12½".

I ended up with four of my panels having the same design. Sadly, it wasn't enough to have all six of them identical. Two panels got a different line up.

With the extending panels ironed and ready, it was now time to sew them to the curtains. Zig zaging the seam to prevent fraying.

The width of each extension panel is longer than the width of the curtain. At this point you can go ahead and trim the excess, iron and sew those side hems.

The last part is to stitch the lower hem close.

After ironing them, this is how they look.  This pair of curtains in the picture below, were the first ones I made. They're a tinsy bit too long. That's why I don't recommend adding the ½" for the seam. What ever you use for the seam is going to bring the total length off the floor.

Anyways, I'm gonna leave them like this.  ;)

I'm loving the plaid, it gives them interest.

This is an easy project, it only takes time - measuring, ironing and sewing- I think I spent two/three hours doing this.
If you don't know how to sew, I think you can use the iron-on hemming tape to tackle this project.

For more DIY sewing projects check these out:

How to Cheat Piping

Make your Curtains a bit Longer

How to Black-out line Store-bought Drapes

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