Note: This post includes affiliate links. This simply means that if you click one of those affiliate links, then make a purchase, I may make a small commission from the sale. All thoughts and opinions are my own! 🙂
I had bought these super cheap curtains from IKEA a while back ($25 for two panels!) and finally got around to hanging them up…7 months later. We lived without curtains (or blinds!) on our bedroom windows for 7 months. Good thing we live in the woods. 🙂
If you’ve ever looked at the curtains at IKEA, you probably noticed that they come in two lengths – long (98″) and super long (118″). These lengths are great because most people choose to hang their curtains higher up from the actual window. This helps the windows and room look bigger. I also just think that it makes the room look more sophisticated, but that’s just me. 🙂
The problem we ran into as we were hanging the curtains is that the curtains were too long. Although I’ve seen many pictures with the curtains pooling on the floor that looks really great, it looked almost sloppy or like we literally had curtains that were too long.
IKEA sells bonding tape that you can use your iron to hem the curtains, but I was looking for a more finished look and was worried that the tape could come undone eventually (I tried using bonding tape on pillows…yeah, bad idea).
If you can sew a straight line on a sewing machine, you can hem these curtains. Take it from an amateur seamstress!
I had 10 panels that needed hemming and a little one that naps for about 2 hours. Can I do it?!?!
To start, I hung one of the panels from the curtain rod, then folded and pinned up the amount that I wanted to hem. This came to 8 1/2″ of extra fabric. That’s quite a bit, so I knew that I would need to actually cut some of that fabric off. This step always makes me nervous! I measured from the bottom of my curtains to 7″ and cut straight across to remove all that extra fabric.
I was left with a raw edge after cutting. To hem, you will need to fold the raw edge up twice, so that edge is tucked nicely inside the hem and isn’t left exposed to start unraveling. So, I measured along my raw edge and made a mark 1″ and 1 1/2″ up from the raw edge. I folded the raw edge up to the 1″ mark, then again to the 1 1/2″ mark and pinned to hold it in place.
This next step made a HUGE difference in my hem – I ironed along the folded edges to help hold it in place when it came time to sew. This step made the hem look more professional, and not like an amateur tried a sewing machine for the first time.
The rest was pretty easy! I placed the hem under my sewing machine, and sewed a straight line across. Finally, we got the rods (HERE) and rings (HERE) from Amazon. That’s it! Isn’t it an accomplishing feeling when something you’ve made turns out well??
