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april_gagnon

curtain screw up

11 years ago

I once again messed up. That's all I ever seem to do. Anyway. I cut my curtain panels way too narrow and the store doesn't have enough of the material I used left to buy more and try again. Is there anyway to fix it? Would it look stupid to sew a border on each side of the panel? It would be a 6-8 in strip on each side.

Comments (18)

  • 11 years ago

    I think it would be perfectly fine to sew a border since you can purchase panels with borders. You might want to do it on all 4 sides. Check the Internet for pictures of drapes with borders and see what you like.

  • 11 years ago

    Agree that borders could be totally fine. Another non-sew solution which someone had posted a while ago was to add maybe 2 panels of sheers and they had posted pix and it looked pretty nice as well.

  • 11 years ago

    Borders would be very fashionable!

  • 11 years ago

    Be patient with yourself, more times than not, a mistake will turn into a blessing. i agree that adding a stripe of coordinating fabric will look really nice, and even more custom. Why not post a pic of the fabric so we can see what you're working with.

  • 11 years ago

    I'm with Lukki. I've had many "happy accidents" in my life. That's probably how many medicines are discovered!
    I also think it would be wise to share a photo of the fabric as the pattern can make a difference in how it could work.

  • 11 years ago

    This is the material. The birds are idk, about the size of a 50 cent coin? They're a little bigger than a quarter. I just saw it and fell in love with it. Probably not your typical living room curtain pattern, but I have a lot of birdy stuff in my house. :-) my rug has the same grey and cream color in it. I messed up big. My windows are not super wide, but decent size. I thought I could just make a panel to hang on each side of the window. we hardly ever close the curtains. But unfortunately, cutting 45 in wide material down the middle was still a little too narrow. I had held it up to the windows to see how it looked, even folded it half, but I also forgot that I had to hem each side. Even with a narrow hem it's still just way to narrow. I can take a different picture if I need to.

  • 11 years ago

    A border would be perfectly fine! I have a lower border on my dining room drapes and they are beautiful.

  • 11 years ago

    I think a sheer-ish (thinking, maybe voile?) border would add to the "flight in air" sense?

  • 11 years ago

    I agree with justgotabeme about using it as the border. If you're going to swag it or have it pushed to one side, the border is what's going to be seen more so than the main part of the curtain.

  • 11 years ago

    I would do a wider border on the inside of the panels, rather than 2 borders.

  • 11 years ago

    I never thought about using it as the border. That's a good idea. Just on the sides or top and bottom as well? Thanks!

  • 11 years ago

    I would do a matching as close as you can grey solid and the bird border. I would also do the solid the full width of the fabric; 44 inches plus the 22 inches of border. Is your rod outside the window frame? If so, you can push all of it a little farther off the glass and with that much fullness it will look really nice.


  • 11 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    It depends how much fabric you have if you want to do it on both sides, top and bottom. My personal preference is to border the length at the inside and the bottom of the panel, with the bottom being a little taller than the sides are in width.
    I found a photo of one on Houzz that's similar, but it has the printed border in a bit from the edge. This could work well for your fabric too. This could work using either color from your current print as the solid.

    Private Woodside Residence · More Info

  • 11 years ago

    Love the fabric. If you do borders, maybe you will have leftover fabric for a pillow? Have you tried finding more of the fabric online?

  • 11 years ago

    Very pretty! I am not a seamstress, but Justs suggestion of flipping the way you use the fabric makes sense and would be lovely. It will also offer the opportunity to beef up the panels for fullness.

  • 11 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    Exactly what I was thinking Lukki. Unless one is working with patterned lace window panels, I always feel, fuller is better.

  • PRO
    11 years ago

    I agree that using the bird fabric as the border might be a reasonable solution.

    That 45" fabric is really considered fabric for clothing. Fabric for drapery and furnishings is usually 54" or 60"+ in width. Fuller for drapery panels on windows is usually better, so if your windows measure 36" in width, you should plan for 108" width (3 times the width). Divided by 2 panels would be 54" finished width for each panel.

    Adding the border on the drapery panels might look like this.