It's Curtains

For far too long our shop bought dining room curtains have been far too long! I have kidded myself that it is fashionable to allow them to pool / straggle on the floor. 

Today I have decided to shorten them. Instead of the many hours I expected - having to unpick, measure and shorten both the curtains and the linings. So far it has only taken an hour and a half. This is because I heeded advice given in online chats between members of the Facebook group "Sewing in the UK. 

I measured how much needed to be taken off the bottom but then I unpicked the heading tape. This didn't take long as with just a few stitches snipped here and there it was almost ready to lift off. 

I allowed for a 1.25 inch turning by deducting this from the 4.5 inches I had decided to shorten the curtains by. I put in a few pins to hold the lining and top fabric together then I cut 3.25 inched off the the top cutting through both curtain and lining.

I turned down and pressed a seam allowance of  1.25 inches.

I reapplied the heading tape. 

(I forgot one of the pins and in trying to get it out I cut my finger and it bled on to the tape. I don't advise that!  Good news is the marks cleaned away.)

Well that's one curtain done. Great. It's never so much fun having to repeat something though is it? The other curtain awaits. Perhaps no one would notice it's length as it is normally hidden by the side of a chair? 

Edit:They match now and the second curtain was quick to do.  A sewing success - yay!