Bathtub Shower Curtain
A bathtub shower curtain has a harder job than a stall panel, and it fails differently. A tub is a raised container with two open ends, and water leaving it does not pass through fabric. It runs down the outside face of a hem draped over the rim, or slips out at a corner the panel never quite reached.
Covering a tub end to end
A standard American tub measures sixty inches long, set in an alcove of much the same span. A seventy-two inch panel therefore gives twelve inches of surplus, six at each end, which is exactly enough to gather and still tuck against both walls. Longer and double-ended tubs need more, and that is what the broader cuts of the printed tub panel are for, running out to ninety-four inches.
Keeping a bathtub shower curtain inside the rim
The bottom edge belongs an inch or two inside the tub wall rather than draped over it, so anything running down the face lands back in the bath. Eighty inches of drop from a rod at conventional height puts it there, which is why fourteen of these fifteen panels are made at one size, seventy-two inches across by eighty tall. Mass helps too, and the textured weaves are the heaviest of them.
Hardware, drag and the edge that lifts anyway
If the panel still creeps outward, the fault usually sits above it. Rings that bind make you drag the fabric rather than glide it, pulling the bottom edge out of position every time, so smooth rings on the rod solve more leaks than people expect. Keep robes and towels off the rod itself and on wall-mounted hooks, since a loaded rod sags and a sagging rod drops the middle of the hem below the rim. Beyond that it is texture: a gray waffle or a dusty pink weave.
Tub-specific questions
Should the panel hang inside or outside the tub?
Inside, always. The bottom edge belongs an inch or two below the rim on the inner face, so water running down the fabric lands back in the bath. Hung outside, the same panel becomes a channel pointing at your floor.
How much broader than the tub should it be?
About twelve inches in total for a standard five-foot tub, six at each end. That gives enough gather to tuck against both walls when the panel is drawn. Longer and double-ended tubs need the same proportion.
Why does water escape at the ends of the tub?
Because the panel is not reaching the wall there, or it is hanging flat rather than in folds. Both are breadth problems. Pull the leading edge slightly past the tub end and press the gather against the tile.
Does the hem need weights over a tub?
Weights help, but fabric mass does the same job. These are woven panels rather than thin printed sheets, and the extra grams hold the bottom edge down when warm air tries to lift it.
What size fits a standard 60-inch tub?
Seventy-two inches across is the working answer for a bathtub shower curtain, which is the single cut most of these come in. For the drop, eighty inches from a rod at conventional height puts the bottom edge inside the rim.
Do these work on a freestanding or clawfoot tub?
Only with an oval or rectangular rail encircling the tub, and then you need two panels or one very long one, plus far more drop, since such rails are usually ceiling-fixed. A single alcove-sized panel will not enclose it.