Shortened Kitchen Panels

I FINALLY broke down and bought some new sheer panels for my south kitchen windows. I didn’t replace the tier part of the curtains because they were still in good shape, and matched ‘good enough’. The other panels ONLY lasted 17 years. (Gee, don’t they make anything like they used to? ) The panels had ‘sun rot’ and when the panels were ‘skooshed’ together, you couldn’t see the damage, but I knew they were rotten. Four panels and $60 later, I hung my new panels, but I thought they were too long. They are close in length to what the other ones were, but still a bit longer, and they are also a bit thinner, I think. You can really see the bottom edge of the window trim, which was not that noticeable with the other panels. If you look in the picture, I have the bench pushed up against the panels, and I didn’t like that. I thought and thought about it, and finally came up with a solution to shorten them. The hems are scalloped, and I didn’t want to make the bottoms straight across because I knew I would make them look uneven, so I figured out a different method, and it worked wonderfully! Better than I thought.

I know, I know. Most of you probably already knew this, but I figured it out all by myself, so just humor me, ok?  Thanks!

First, I turned the panels over, and I cut the rod pocket completely off the panel, right under the hem of the rod pocket.

I folded the panels lengthwise in half, and then in half again, and I measured off the 11” I wanted to shorten them….

…and cut that chunk off the length, right below where I just cut off the rod pocket.

Next, I placed my rod pocket back with my panel, right sides together and pinned all the way across.

I sewed the rod pocket back on the panel.

I flipped the panel over, and sewed a zigzag stitch all the way across to hold down the raw edge……

…and I’m done!

I did that four times, and I’m a happy girl!!

Now why did it take me this long to figure it out?