How to best repair a tear in sheer curtains -- desperate!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_mending is very expensive. Somebody might have paid a lot of money for those curtains, but they are not valuable curtains. They are not hand-embroidered heirloom silk draperies. They are nylon "sheers" with machine embroidery, almost certainly cheap fabric from China. Which looks to have a fundamental design flaw, with the white part not being able to support the weight of the black stitching. They were not meant to last. Just get new curtains. You could get extremely attractive curtains that would be made to last, and which would stand up to normal curtain things like open windows, for probably less than what you have been led to believe those are worth. (I do some fancy hand mending and if you brought those to me I would tell you no. It would not be worth either of our time or $ to fix it, and if I fixed it I would be angry with myself for taking your money for a foolish thing and you would be angry at me when they continued to disintegrate.)

As they are so sheer, how about installing another set of plain sheer curtains and then having these ones permanently tied decoratively at the ends? That way you get to keep them but their functionality is reduced and also you won't notice the rips.

Definitely not $800 a yard. I've worked with tons of mock-ups and model fabrics and no developer in the world would go for a spec quote that required $800/yd fabric. Never ever. Probably something along the lines of $25 to (at the absolute most) $75 a yard. So, having said that, I totally get why this is a problem and the usual fix of just sewing a dart to conceal the tear won't work here. I would not recommend using fray-check or nail polish either. The hole is still going to be there and you will still be able to tear it more. Fray check is more for things that are generally fraying out at the edges, not interior repairs of things that are hanging. It will also plasticize the tear a bit and stress the surrounding fabric making a little "handle" for the tear to get bigger/worse. OK, so blah, blah, blah... what to do? Here's what I'd do if you brought them to my workrooms and insisted that these were the sheers you had to save: Get some sheer fusible interfacing. Nothing too heavy. You are looking for something like Pellon SK135 by the yard. Get a yard or two of it. Have an iron, a pair of scissors, a pencil, paper, and an old sheet. Now for the fun part: Take some paper and trace out the pattern of the embroidery that surrounds each hole or tear on the paper. You are going to be using this for a template, so do it right. You want to isolate the area to be stabilized and just a bit outside of it. Now take your old sheet and lay it over the ironing table or any flat surface. If you are using a regular table or a countertop, put a couple of towels or a wool or cotton blanket down before the sheet to protect the surface. Cut your interfacing pieces based on your templates you traced on the paper. Make sure that the textured side of the interfacing (that is the heat-activated adhesive) is going to go to the back of the sheer. Making sure that your precision-cut fusible is in the right place, follow the directions on the package to fuse the interfacing to the back of the sheer. If you wanted to go the extra route of then using fray-check not the edge of the scar, go for it, but it shouldn't be necessary. Cutting precise patterns that will blend in with the circular embroidery will help hide/camouflage the extra bulk that the interfacing will add. If you don't want to go to the trouble of cutting precise patterns, you can always just cut squares/rectangles that will cover the area and put them on the same way, but you will see the edges of the interfacing through the sheer and it will look a little more "fixed". IMO, that is about the best way to do it if you wanted to go just a little quick and dirty without reaching http://failblog.cheezburger.com/thereifixedit levels of fix. I'lll work out a demonstration for you and post it once the day gets rolling. Check back in a couple of hours.

Sheers, and especially silk sheers, are very delicate. They simply deteriorate with age, and sun exposure degrades them as well. This damage looks like normal age damage for this fabric. If you try to clean them the will fall apart. If you try to repair them you'll see new holes next month. It's time for new curtains. You can try to source the same fabric or choose something new. If you are crafty curtains are an easy project, but embroidered silk is always expensive by the yard.

I think a tailor is your best bet. I've used stitch witchery many times with great results, but it wasn't made for this type of repair. I've always thought of sheers as sun protection for carpets and furniture, i.e., made to be sacrificed to the elements. This seems like odd item to have custom made by a designer.

I 100% understand your attachment to these curtains -- I am similarly attached to a TV unit that will never be able to leave my apartment and the thought of losing it makes me cry because IT IS PERFECT and I just... No. Okay? So here's what I'm thinking. How long have you owned your home, and can you still contact whoever it was that told you the curtains were expensive? IME, stuff that goes into model homes isn't always that irreplaceable, and I think it would be worth your while to try and suss out if you can have replacements made either by the original designer or by a new one. Would anyone in your housing complex know who made them?

I was a custom drapery seamstress for a few years when I was younger. Those drapes are not repairable imo. They're started dry-rotting and separating and once that starts, it's like rust on a car. If they're over 8-10 yrs old, that's the end of their life generally. Now the bad news is over, what you could do is apply some very lightweight stitch witchery or other fusible repair tape to the runs & holes. (NOT stitch witchery hem tape, that will melt all over and create a much bigger mess. You need a repair tape w/heat-activated glue, like the Dritz Iron-On Mending Tape I found online. Get the lightest weight available). It will show as a definite shadow and on the wrong side it will just show, but not many people look at the back side of drapes. Apply the smallest amount of the tape as you can, and use a press-cloth so you don't scorch the fabric and weaken it more. You may find more holes forming just from handling to repair them, so don't be surprised if that happens, try to be gentle. It's really pretty fabric btw.

Honestly--and I'm not exactly trying to take your husband's side here, you should still try to get him to quit letting them flap around in the wind--this doesn't look like catch-and-snag or fraying damage from being left untied, it looks like fabric that's been weakened somehow starting to fall apart. Curtains are exposed to a lot of UV radiation, and if they aren't UV-resistant (or protected by a liner, which isn't possible when they're sheer) they will fade and/or shatter after they've been in constant service for a few years. If these curtains are silk, this is absolutely what is happening, and it's http://kearnyhistorymuseum.blogspot.com/2013/07/1920s-beaded-flapper-dress.html. It's virtually ubiquitous once sheer silk garments reach 40-80 years old unless they are essentially never used and stored under archival conditions, and I wouldn't be surprised if it started to happen after only a few years of sun exposure. If you're hell-bent of fixing them, Tchad has some good advice--but I think investing too much time, money or emotion in these curtains is just going to lead to heartbreak down the line when they start to wear even more. I think you should look into having new curtains made in a similar, or better, fabric (or make them yourself--curtains are a satisfying and achievable sewing project even for a novice). Also consider having multiple sets so you can rotate them seasonally or only put up your favorites when you're most able to enjoy them.

I wonder if clear nail polish would work for the smaller ones (like for runs in stockings/nylons). For the larger ones you could try small bits of iron-on interfacing (I'm not sure what you mean by fabric stabilizer but could be similar). Interfacing is available at any fabric store. To use it on delicate fabric, place the curtain on an ironing board, the interfacing on the back of the torn bits and place a towel over where you will iron. The towel will allow some heat through to seal the interfacing on but will protect the fabric. Good luck!