The Adored Abode

Have you ever bought curtains that are too long? I certainly have. I actually prefer buying them a little longer than necessary and hemming them myself. Here’s the catch, I don’t own a sewing machine, nor do I really have a desire to learn to sew during this season of my life. Maybe someday I will learn to sew – I think it would be an awesome skill to have and I admire all the people that do! But for now, I resort to my trusty no-sew hemming technique!

WHY I BUY CURTAINS THAT ARE A LITTLE TOO LONG (HANG THEM HIGH AND WIDE)

Before I divulge my not so secret or earth-shattering hemming technique I thought I would explain why I prefer to buy my curtains a little bit too long.

Standard curtains typically come in lengths of 84 inches and 96 inches. We have 8-foot ceilings throughout most of our home, aside from our wonderfully vaulted living room ceilings! My guideline for hanging curtains is to hang them high and wide – meaning I typically install the curtain rod end brackets 5-8 inches above the top of the window and 5-8 inches out from the side of the window, which, for our house, makes the curtain rod hang anywhere from 88-93 inches from the floor (depending window and if there is crown molding on the ceiling). This means if I bought the 84-inch curtains they would be too short! So instead I almost always opt for the 96-inch curtains, knowing I will have to hem them a bit myself.

When you hang the curtain rod high and wide it gives the illusion of larger windows and really draws your eye up, which I think makes the ceilings seem taller as well.

HOW TO HEM WITHOUT A SEWING MACHINE

Like I said, this is not a secret technique by any means, I just wanted to share in case the idea is new to you!

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. For more information, see my disclosures here. 

There is an awesome product called hem tape and I have used it on everything, including; table cloths, clothing, a DIY headboard slipcover, and of course, curtains!

SUPPLIES

• Curtains of choice that need hemming
• Hem tape
• Iron
• Ironing board (I’m still rocking my table top iron from my apartment days, but I’d really like something like this one!)
• Damp cloth

THE PROCESS

I recommend hanging your curtain rod at the desired height and width first and testing your curtains on the rod before proceeding with hemming, so you know how much to hem. As a double check you can measure exactly how high the curtain rod hangs from the floor (i.e. 90 inches) and know you will need to remove about 6 inches if you purchased the 96-inch panels, if you are wanting them to skim the ground. This is how I prefer my curtains, but you could have them pool a little too if that is the look you want meaning you would need to hem less than 6 inches. I am lazy and usually just eyeball it – marking the length I need to remove from each curtain. In our bedroom I had to take into account the crown moulding above the window. I didn’t want to hang the curtain over the moulding, so I was only able to hang the rods a few inches above the top of the window.

TIP: Measure how much to hem from each curtain panel separately. Learn from my mistake – your floor may not be level so although you installed the curtain rod level, the ground below it may not be level, which would leave you with uneven curtains if you take the exact same length off both. 

I completely forgot to take pictures of this process, so I grabbed screenshots from my Instagram stories (this process is also saved to my highlights if you want to watch the video!) – apologies for the blurry pictures!

In this case rather than cutting off the excess (which you can definitely do), I decided to just fold the excess under and hem along the seam. The extra weight does help the curtains hang nicely on the bottom, plus I wanted the option to be able to remove the hem down the road if need be since I’m always moving things around our house. You can remove a seam that was hemmed using hem tape by pulling pretty hard on it (yes, I’ve done this before 😊), I wouldn’t recommend it, but like I said, I just wanted to keep my options open.

I set up my very professional hemming station and hemmed the curtains while they were still hanging on the rod! This is why I call myself a lazy DIYer, I like to do DIY projects, but try to make them as simple as possible. If you want to be more precise I would recommend not hemming the curtains while they are still hanging up. BUT the bonus of doing it while they are hanging up is you can check the length as you go and make sure they are falling at the length you want before you finish it completely.

Most hem tapes recommend just ironing the hem tape between the two edges of fabric where you want your seam, but I have found it works so much better if you put a damp cloth between the iron and the fabric. The damp cloth creates steam when the iron is placed on it and allows the tape to get extra melty to ensure a solid bond. Leave the iron (moving it around every once and a while) over each section for 30 seconds to 1 minutes, lifting the iron every so often to check the bond. Once the tape looks nice and melty you can move on the next section with the iron and damp cloth – working in roughly 6-inch sections at a time (the length of the iron). You will likely have to re-dampen your cloth every so often. After you have hemmed an entire panel let it cool for a few minutes and it’s ready to be re-hung (or just let it fall back into place if you didn’t take the curtains off the rod to hem).

In our room I hemmed a total of 6 panels and it probably took me 2 hours – not too bad. Once you have hemmed all the seams you can admire your curtains with the now perfect length!