How to hem tulle with your own hands correctly and beautifully?

To hem curtains, you will need a sewing machine, a minimum set of tools and materials: threads, needles, scissors. Also, keep an iron handy while working - you will have to press hems and seams after each line.

Textile

Often tulle is called not only the fabric itself, but also all light transparent curtains. They can be made of tulle or other materials - most often organza, less often viscose and cotton.

Before you start working with light synthetic fabric (tulle, organza), carefully examine the fabric and determine how the grain thread runs. You need to cut the fabric along it. Before trimming the edges, they must be steamed with an iron.

If your material is tulle, then to make it easier to navigate, you can pull one thread from the fabric at a distance of 0.5-1 cm from the edge, and then cut along the line formed. This trick won’t work with any other fabric—you’ll have to trim it without a guide.

Synthetic tulle is very slippery, so each edge is aligned one at a time. It is advisable to place thick cotton fabric under the material so that it slips less.

Threads and needles

For tulle and organza, select thin threads of size No. 40 and smaller. Their color should be in harmony with the color of the fabric.If the material shimmers, then take threads that are a couple of shades lighter - light does not stand out so much against a dark background.

Thin needles are inserted into the machine. They must be sharp, since tulle is a very delicate material, it is easily pulled and torn.

Preparatory work

Before work, cover the table with a cotton cloth - this will reduce the sliding of the curtain on the surface.

It is recommended to hem very thin material on tissue paper. After completing the stitch, the paper simply comes off.

Before you start working on your sewing machine, stitch a little on a small unnecessary piece of tulle. If necessary, adjust the stitch length and thread tension. The seams are made with a straight stitch with an average step length (3-4 mm).

Side edges

First we process the side edges of the curtain.

1. The edge should be trimmed evenly and smoothed.
2. We place the tulle with the wrong side up, fold the hem 1-2 cm. Smooth it with an iron.
3. Then fold the edge again by 1-2 cm and iron it. This way we get a double hem.
4. To make the material slip less, you can fix it with pins before ironing.
5. We sew the seam on the machine at a distance of approximately 1-2 mm from the edge of the hem.

We process the second side edge of the curtain in the same way.

How to hem to length?

Some curtains have beautiful trim at the bottom - lace, scallops, original patterns. Sometimes weights are inserted into the tulle - a special cord or weights. In this case, the curtain length is adjusted only when processing the upper edge.

If the bottom of the fabric is simple, then it can be hemmed in several ways. The simplest is a double hem, the same as on the sides of the fabric.

The width of the hem is slightly larger than on the sides, and depends on the material of the curtain.

• In rigid fabrics (nylon, organza), the fold width should be at least 3 cm.
• The veil and light tulle can be folded up to 2 cm.
• It is recommended to hem plastic mesh to a width of 1 cm.

More difficult to perform are the Moscow seam (American) or bias tape.

On a note

It is not recommended to process the bottom of curtains made of light fabrics with a zigzag or overlock stitch - this will make the fabric fit and drape worse.

Moscow seam

How to hem curtains correctly and organza tulle? A good way is the so-called Moscow seam.

It is performed as follows.

1. Fold the edges of the curtains 0.5-1 cm and iron them.
2. Perform a straight stitch at a distance of 2-3 mm from the edge of the hem.
3. Excess fabric of the hem is cut off at a distance of 2-3 mm from the stitching. The material should not crumble.
4. Fold the fabric over again, iron it and stitch it. They try to get into the first line or make a seam at a distance of 1-2 mm from it. In this case, the first seam remains inside the hem.

In this way, a light, airy curtain edge is obtained with minimal material consumption for the hem.

Bias tape

This method is most often used to process embroidered fabric or mesh tulle.

For this you will need a special foot, which comes with your sewing machine. It can also be purchased at sewing stores. A snail foot would also work. The bottom of the curtain is trimmed evenly, ironed and folded when sewing (the edge of the fabric is tucked into the foot).

Bias tape can be purchased at the store. This is an applied tape with pre-fitted allowances; it can serve a decorative function (for example, satin trim). It's easy to sew on.

1. Pin the binding to the bottom edge of the tulle with sewing pins.
2. Check the joints.
3. Sew with a straight stitch.

Top edge processing

Lastly, start processing the top edge of the curtain. Most often, curtain tape is used - it is convenient and beautiful. Using curtain tape, or extrafora, you can create various folds and draperies of the fabric.

1. Measure the desired curtain length. For practicality, it is recommended to make it 10-15 cm less than the distance from the floor to the cornice, but some prefer floor-length curtains.
2. An allowance of 2-2.5 cm is left to the required length.
3. Curtain tape is purchased based on the width of the curtain plus 5 cm for side hems for each curtain.
4. The tulle is placed with the wrong side up, folded in 2-2.5 cm, and ironed.
5. Curtain tape is applied to the hem. The laces and loops of the tape should be on the outside.
6. The tape is pinned and stitched at a distance of 1-2 mm from the top edge of the curtain.
7. Having reached the edge, the laces are released, and the tape allowance is turned inward by 2-2.5 cm on each side.
8. Carry out the second line along the bottom edge of the tape, also retreating by 1-2 mm.

The curtain is ironed and pulled together using tape to the desired fold configuration.

That's all, tulle is ready to take its place on the window and delight you with its beauty.

To summarize, let's say that if you buy ready-made curtains in a store, and do not sew them to order, then you will probably need to adjust them to length. To hem tulle, all you need is a sewing machine at home. Of course, you can make seams by hand, but this is too labor-intensive.

Most often, curtains made of tulle and organza are hemmed using the double hem method. To save material or not weigh down the curtain, you can use the so-called Moscow seam.And if there is a need for decorative finishing of the bottom edge, then you can sew on a beautiful braid or use ready-made bias tape.