Lengthening Curtains

The rule of thumb when hanging curtains is to hang them from ceiling to floor. Not right above the top of the window and not at the ceiling so the bottoms only touch the window sill. You also want to go wider than the window. 

Long curtains = larger-looking rooms = polished look

Courtesy of this adorable blog

CONFESSION. Literally every curtain I bought up to this point has been too short, but I was also a new college graduate with a tiny income so I didn't want to splurge on the correct length because we didn't have our house yet. Since we built our home last year, I've been putting on my big-girl pants and doing things the 'right' way since we'll be living here for a long time.


Now, in having all of these curtains and not wanting to waste them, I decided to lengthen them so they'll look appropriate for our tall ceilings.

New 108" curtain panels: $60/ panel

Remade old curtains: $35 for 3 panels

Step 1. Measure curtains and get fabric
For our 7' curtains, I needed 2 extra feet of length for our 9' ceilings and since each panel was 42" wide, I had to find fabric that was wider to allow for hems. Adjust the amount of fabric you buy for how tall your ceilings are and the width of your current curtains allowing extra inches for hems.

Reminder: When looking for your fabric, keep in mind mixed textures and complimentary colors are your best bet. My curtains were a darker orange and blues are a complimentary color, according to the color wheel, so I chose navy fabric.

2. Cut and Stitch

Cut your curtain panels where you'd like to add the new fabric. I chose to add mine to the bottom so I measured 24" from the end. 

Cut your new fabric to the correct length you're adding. Mine was 28" wide and 46" long.

Pin the new fabric's edge to the curtain's newly cut edge, fronts facing each other (back of the fabrics are facing outward). Stitch with your sewing machine (with appropriate color/ polyester blend thread) an inch away from the rough edged end to make a seam all the way across. Pin the other half of the curtain to the opposite side of your new fabric and sew another 1" seam across. Presto! One panel is complete :) Repeat these steps for your other panels.

3. Hang Curtains

My rods are from Ross for like &10 each... no lie... and they look like million bucks. Position your rod about 2-3 inches from your ceiling, allowing more room if the end pieces are chunky so they don't scrape your ceiling. Here are ours below....

I apologize for the awful photo quality, but I literally took this on the way out of the door this morning.  

Congrats on saving bukus of money while making your home super stylish :)

Happy crafting!