The Simplest Alteration Ever...

So today I'm going to share how I altered my tab top curtains to back tab curtains. You can see the finished product hanging here.

This may be the simplest curtain alteration - ever.

Seriously. Someone with no sewing experience could do this.

So lets get started.

Obv you need to have a tab top curtain.

I ironed my curtain so that everything would be nice, crisp and flat.

What we're going to do is fold the tabbed portions back underneath the curtain header and then stitch them down. Now where you stitch is up to you and the width of your curtain rod. My curtains rods are teeny so I was able to stitch in the ditch of the existing header so you can't even see my new stitches.

Here's me folding the first tab to the backside of the curtain.

You can't really see it, but I am stitching in the ditch (stitching over existing stitching).

Here's a slightly clearer view of the stitching line I'm following. It's faint but it's there. Also I did not fold under the tabs until I was almost on them. I made sure to keep my needle in the down position while doing this as well.

Just a couple more shots of me stitching these tabs down.

You want to make sure and try to get the tabs to fold as flat as possible and have the tops line up as much as possible so that your new header on the curtain doesn't look flunky.

So here's the curtains hanging. You can see the shadow of the tabs a little bit, but when you move away from the window you can't tell at all. It doesn't help that the white cotton shows everything as well.

Here's the view of the back of the curtain - looking up at the curtain rod. The rod slides nicely along the new back tabs, but it doesn't  hang limply. I also did not cut those tabs in case I wanted to undo this alteration in the future. I probably never will, but you never know.

Now for the fine print. When you buy an 84" curtain and you convert it from tab top to back tab you will lose about 3 inches. I avoided this, because the curtains I bought from Ikea were unfinished at the bottom, so I measured down 84" from the header I was going to be creating. Just an FYI. :)

One more of the finished product. :)

Hope you guys enjoyed this super simple tutorial!

Have a great day,
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