Customizing and lengthening store-bought curtain panels

Our dining room curtains were plain and hung too low. Oh, and they were spattered with food too, thanks to a certain toddler. I had been afraid to wash them for fear they would shrink, but the time had come.

My plan was to raise the rod close to the ceiling and add length to the curtains, so any shrinking wouldn’t matter anyway. I took the plunge, threw them in the wash and all the old food stains came clean. Woo!

Next was adding length to the panels. I happened upon a two-yard fabric remnant. The colors and pattern were great for the space. It also matched the width of the existing curtain panels (54″). Two yards were all I needed to add length to four panels. (There are also two panels in the adjacent living room that needed the same treatment.) It was a totally lucky find. I don’t know the name of the pattern, but it’s a P/Kaufmann fabric, and their fabrics are priced around $15-20+/yd. I got mine for $4/yd. Score one for thriftiness!

I thought about adding the length at the bottom, but the patterned fabric wouldn’t have been visible behind the living room couch. I thought about adding the length at the top, but that would have meant getting rid of the grommets at the top of the panels, which I kind of wanted to keep.

And then I hit on a good compromise: cutting the panels in two and sandwiching the patterned fabric in between. I would get the pattern above eye level and still get to keep the grommets. I lined up the top of the patterned insert with the top of the window trim (more or less).

After lots of repetitive straight sewing and I had four custom curtain panels!

I had plans to add legnth to the cotton sheers as well, but when I pinned up the extra fabric, it looked really bad. Had to ditch that idea. I didn’t even bother putting half of them back up. I’m going to replace them with longer versions of the same thing, hopefully.

Want more window treatment thriftiness? See how I took stock bamboo shades and shortened them for smaller windows. >>