Hemming up drapes temporarily

13 years ago

I bought Robert Eclipse blackout drapes for my son's bedroom in his apt. The ones I got are 84 inches long. I need to hem them up a bit and I am wondering if I could use 2 sided tape instead of hand hemming. I want to use them again if he moves to another apt next year.

My question is, what kind of 2 sided tape should I use that can hold a 10 inch hem (100% polyester material) and be able to pull apart without damaging the drapery should I need to reuse for another size window.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (6)

yborgal
13 years ago
Would iron on Stitch Witchery work? I know it can be reheated to loosen it without damage.
My3dogs ME zone 5A
13 years ago
It's just me, but I'd take the time to hem them. If you use Stitch Witchery, you'll be left with a residue when you try to separate them. I'm not sure if you are talking about a non-sewing 'double sided tape', but I wonder if that will dry out over time and fail on curtains. Your 'cleanest' bet is a simple hand stitched hem. More time initially, but far better if you need to hem again in the future.
Related Discussions
Tartan drapes are up...pics inside
Q
Comments (66)
I think your drapes look wonderful! I love the fabric. The cut out portion is cleaver & looks excellent with the same fabric used on the bench seat. I agree with others who have said the person sewing this should have incorporated some sort of drapery weight in each of the bottom corners. Most of the time it's done in a way that you can not see the weight after the hems are sewn. Over time (weeks/months), the weight of these drapes alone (the fabric & the blackout lining) while hanging will help somewhat with the folds. But, in the meantime, you could help them out, like others have already suggested. I think the overall look of your drapes is really nice and I hope this issue that bothers you will be solved. It is good that you have blackout lining to protect the drapery fabric & all of the nice things inside the room. The portrait of your grandmother is very special.
...See More
How much to pay for hemming of curtains
Q
Comments (24)
I hired a seamstress to cut off and rehem 4 panels 37" wide × 63 " long, each. She charged 80 dollars but deducted 15 dollars because I keep her supplied with hangers. I had just given her about 100 of them. I will admit I don't buy them, get them from my son-in-law as they dry clean his work shirts or wash them, not sure. I know he doesn't wash them at home, and he saves them for me. But she ended up charging me 65 dollars. I couldn't believe it . Thought it was a little much. So I will ask you ladies that are in the business, was it a fair price. The curtains were 100% Polyester. But very nice. The hangers are brand new, just used that one time, and they're the wire ones. So I really would like your opinion. If not for the hangers, she would have charged me 80 dollars for 4 panels
...See More
Lining up drapery lining?
Q
Comments (7)
I forgot that I had posted this here! (I've been posting about this in Home Decorating.) I did my most recent roman shade with double turned side/bottom hems instead of the pillowcase method, and bought a 15" square. Wow, it makes ALL the difference!! I used the blind stitch hem on my machine, and it worked perfectly. I also got the advice to use the walking foot to avoid the waving fabric for the bottom hem, where I just used a straight stitch. Also worked perfectly. I love how it came out! I haven't hung it yet. Odd thing, though. The pattern itself wasn't completely aligned. I used the method of pulling on a thread to try to square the fabric, but the print was not even -- it was off by an inch from one end to the other. So I used a mix of measuring plus eyeballing to coerce the fabric into squareness. Worked great! I'm having far too much fun making these shades. I already bought the fabric for my boys' rooms (five windows total there).
...See More
Temporarily Unhappy Customer
Q
Comments (46)
I think to some extent I have trouble putting myself in the homeowner's place because I obsess over everything, design everything and discuss everything with whoever is doing the work--and I wouldn't have cabinets that I peeled the foil off of, paint drips, or double-sided tape. Nor would I replace a sink in cabinets like that unless it fell down into the cabinet---maybe that's what happened, but I would probably put a top mount sink in and call it done. And the people who do work for me have no particular complaints about my level of participation because I think it's fairly common in their clientele and because I pay whatever they ask on time and without trying to get them to cut deals or get things comped. So I can see why you would think that's someone who would not care about a screw hole or touch up paint and so forth. But I have had clients whose houses are a mess when I walk into the project and yet then expect absolute perfection from anything anybody else does. A client whose furniture was literally in the position it was set by the movers years earlier (crooked and off-center, had a wall that was painted a slightly different color because she guessed at the paint store after she took down some old wallpaper (bits and pieces of which were painted over) and had crookedly hung $5.00 panels from K-mart on her windows was extremely picky about the paint job done by someone else, the flooring job (for some reason she wanted it laid the other direction even though it made no sense with the joists) and the fact that the custom drapery fabric was seamed and you could see seams. I think she thought custom fabric meant they had looms ten feet wide if the drapes were ten feet wide. The big problem was that she was actually paying someone instead of doing it herself and was buying things that had not fallen off a truck somewhere and or had not been made by slaves in Malaysia, and deep down that bugged her.
...See More
nhb22
13 years ago
I just went through this with my bathroom curtains. They were a tad long, so I got the bright idea to use the two sided hem tape - no ironing. I used a clear type that I had on-hand and is normally for hemming pants in an emergency. The hem lasted about two days before starting to come apart when the hot sun hit the hem (this is on a tub platform, so the hem of the curtains is right under the window sill.) However, the tape pulled right off without any damage to the curtains.

I then got really lazy because I didn't want to take the curtains down to machine stitch. Instead, I used small brass safety pins and pinned the hem up. They are placed verticle, or lengthwise on the curtains. I caught just a few threads. Then, I used my straightening iron (used for hair,) to press the hem in place. lol The curtains look great and the pins do not show through!
cbreeze
Original Author
13 years ago
I was wondering if the no iron 2 sided hem tape would hold for about 12 months and newhomebuilder just confirmed my suspicion since these drapes would hang in southern exposed NYC bedroom, the tapes would not last. Oh well, back to hand hemming. Thanks all for the suggestions.
greenmtn
13 years ago
How about using the wash away fusible tape? It is made to temporarily baste clothing together during construction but then washes out to avoid any stiffness in the clothing. You could iron it on for the hem.
cbreeze
Original Author
13 years ago
I just found RES Q tape in a fabric store. It's a 2 sided tape that won't leave residue. Has anyone used this before or any opinions?

Hemming up drapes temporarily

Comments (6)

yborgal

My3dogs ME zone 5A

Related Discussions

nhb22

cbreeze
Original Author

greenmtn

cbreeze
Original Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Hemming up drapes temporarily

Comments (6)

yborgal

My3dogs ME zone 5A

Related Discussions

nhb22

cbreezeOriginal Author

greenmtn

cbreezeOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

cbreeze
Original Author

cbreeze
Original Author