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Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Making Your Shower Curtain More Washer Friendly

While staying in a hotel a number of months ago, I noticed that the shower curtain in the bathroom was attached with buttons to a smaller "curtain" from which the shower curtain actually was hung from the shower rod. I thought it was a great way for the maids in the hotel to be able to switch out the shower curtain without having to take the entire curtain down.

Well, I got home and started to plan how to do the same with MY shower curtain.  The shower curtain I was using had a very large hem at the bottom. Fortunately, I'd not cut off the shower curtain when I first hung it since originally it hung from a rod much higher above the tub.

I measured 8 inches down from the top of the shower curtain and cut off the shower curtain at that mark.

I then made a 2 inch hem along the cut edge. The hem actually became about 1 3/4 inches deep since I turned under the cut edge 1/4 inch to make the hem more finished. I also used a strip of light-weight interfacing in the hem so I could give that section of the shower curtain some stability. Later, I would sew a button below each hole at the top where the curtain hooks hold the shower curtain onto the rod.

*It's important to put the buttons on the shorter section, and buttonholes on the longer section so that the top section overlaps the bottom section when hung.


Next, I measured a 2 inch hem at the top of the longer section of the shower curtain. I finished the hem as I had done on the shorter section. On this hem I would stitch the button hole would be added.

By placing the shorter piece of the curtain over the longer section, I was able to mark exactly where each buttonhole would need to be sewed.  My machine will make the exact same size buttonhole each time, so making sure they were all the same wasn't an issue.

With the buttons on, and the buttonholes completed, I was ready to rehang my shower curtain.  It now has a shorter hem at the bottom since I need a few extra inches to create that overlap for the buttonholes and buttons AND it's far easier to take down and wash when needed.


I really completed this project much earlier this year, but today was the first time I needed to wash the shower curtain. (Guest bathrooms don't often get as much use around here.) What a snap it was to remove and then put it back up to dry.

View from the inside

View from the outside