New Floors = Short Drapes

We had some renovations done on our condo in Florida last winter, and as with every renovation once you change one thing there is a domino affect and you end up having to change several things you had not planned on. So we went from carpet to hard surface floors and that change made our drapes about 3 inches too short.

You can see by the light shining in from under the drapes that they are now a bit too short. 

When we purchased the condo one of the requirements from the management company was to have ceiling to floor darkening lined drapes on the sliding glass patio doors. This window/door goes all the way across the back of the condo. So, we called a drapery company that came in and made the drapes for us for a whopping $900. These drapes are massive and very heavy.

When they came to install the new floors the first installers (yes we had to have a second installer come in to fix the work of the first group) left the drapes hanging and got putty on the bottom of the drapes.

Try as I might, I could not get the putty to come off of the drapes. It is still wet from the last attempt.

I knew I was going to have to have the drapes altered, and could not find anyone that would do the job. I decided I would drive into Florida with my sewing machine and do the job myself. On my last visit I saw that there was a very large hem in the drapes, so it should not be a big deal to let it out 3 inches. WRONG! When I got to Florida and started to take the hem out I found the putty stain and a stain at the bottom of the old hem where the drapes had been rubbing on the carpet over the last 5 years that left a permanent dirt stain. Once the hem was let out I tried to clean the putty stain and the hem stain to see if I could get them out, but that was unsuccessful. I tried every stain removing trick and product I knew and no matter what I tried the stains would not come out. Time for Plan B, once of course I thought of a Plan B.

Not the best picture, but you get the idea of the hem stain that was all across the bottom of the drapes.

I went to one of my favorite fabric stores, Joann Fabric, and found a tan, heavy, 3 inch lace and bought about 8 yards of the lace. I had a coupon for 40% off and was able to get enough lace for my drapes for less than $50.

Once I was able to get the heavy drapes down off the hooks by myself (no easy task) I started taking the hem out of both panels of the drapes.  I folded  and pinned the new hem and ironed out all the creases from the old hem.  Then I sewed the hem in place.

Hem is sewn and you can see the lovely dirt line, yuck!

Now I could see the dirt stain about 3 inches from the bottom of the drapes all the way across the drapes bottom. I pinned the lace with the bottom of the lace covering the stain line and leaving about 2 3/4 inches of drape showing below it. I then sewed the lace in place by sewing it along the top and the bottom of the lace.

The lace is pinned in place.

Time to sew the lace in place. First at the top and then a second seam at the bottom above the scallop.

Next was the hard part, hanging the drapes back up. It took me several tries and almost falling off the ladder a few times to get them back on the hooks. They were so heavy that I tried to hold them up to keep the weight of the drapes from pulling down on the section I was hanging and it was a truly harrowing experience. But as you can see. I was successful.

This would not have been my first choice on how to alter our drapes, but they turned out nice and hopefully they will last at least another 5 years.