curtain shortening disaster - help!

[pickingdaisies]

I bought a pair of ready-made curtains which were too long. So, on one curtain I have cut and hemmed the lining, so far so good, and cut, ironed and tried to hem the curtain, using blind stitch on my machine. BUT the curtain fabric is fraying (it's a rough weave, not great quality on close inspection) and when I try to sew it, the fabric stretches and/or puckers, so it looks awful. They only cost £35 in the sale, so should I abandon the effort now? (Unpicking is a sod, because the fabric wants to disintegrate). Or is there a way forward?
Other curtain is untouched. Can you tell I don't do this often?

You need some iron on interfacing to stabilise the material.

Hand sewing is probably the way forward, wait for a warm day and you have a great excuse to sit in the sunshine for a few hours, while being productive!😀

I recently shortened a pair from the top as advised on mn. Agree iron on webbing should help, bias binding or very wide zigzag stitch to neaten.

Wow that was fast! Thanks, I'll try the iron -on and abandon the machine. LIZS, I've seen that method online, but I wasn't brave enough didn't want to sew header tape onto tricky (for me) fabric. My mistake was to underestimate the difficulty of the fabric compared to my skill set, and to tackle the job when I had a temperature!

I would also consider using an even feed foot if you have one as it can help avoid puckering :)

Ooh, don't know if I've got one, I'll have to have a rummage! I was using a blind stitching foot, but tbh I'm not convinced that my machine is feeding properly anyway, the feed dogs were seized when I dusted the cobwebs off