Off the bolt, into your window

unrolled

Off the bolt, by the metre

Fabric is the core of the business. Curtain-weight wovens, linen, wool, velvet with a cotton or a polyester pile, voiles and sheers, and the heavier upholstery-weight cloths are sold off the roll by the metre. Each comes with its fibre composition and its care: the textile labelling rules say that information must reach whoever buys the cloth, and for cloth sold by length it may be shown on the roll itself.

Behind the face go the layers nobody sees — cotton sateen, thermal and blackout linings, and the interlinings: bump, a thick cotton, or the lighter domette. Then the haberdashery: header tapes, buckram, hooks, gliders, penny weights and chain weight, and the rods, cord, cord locks and cleats a Roman blind is built from. People who sew their own curtains buy the same things the same way, with the cutting worked out for them.

Fabrics, linings and haberdashery

measured

Measured at the window it is for

Nothing is cut until the window has been measured where it stands. For curtains that means the width at the track or pole line and the finished drop. For a blind that sits inside the opening it means the width of the recess at the top, the middle and the bottom, because old openings are seldom square and the narrowest of the three is the one that fits. We note the depth of the ingo — the Scots word for the reveal, where the stone turns in — the room either side for the curtains to stack back, what the wall is made of, and whatever is in the way: a radiator, a shutter box, a socket.

Three kinds of window share this part of the city. Sandstone tenement bays with sash and case windows and deep ingoes; the post-war multi-storey flats, among them the five 20-storey blocks George Wimpey built on Charles Street in Royston in 1962; and the new homes going up at Sighthill. Each asks different questions, and the visit asks them.

cut

Cut on the repeat

Then the arithmetic. The track width times the fullness of the heading gives the flat width of cloth, and that divided by the width of the fabric, rounded up, gives the number of widths. Each drop is the finished length plus what the heading and hems take, rounded up to a whole number of pattern repeats so the design lines up across every seam. A half-drop design steps down half a repeat from one width to the next and asks for more cloth. Half widths go to the outer edges, so the full widths meet in the middle, where the eye goes.

Here the chalk line goes across, the shears close, and the length comes away from the bolt.

For a whole house, Measuring up does the same sums window by window, counts the heading, the hem and the side turnings one by one, and keeps the list so it can travel with a request for cuttings.

Work out your own cut plan Measure every window

made up

Three cloths made into one curtain

A lined and interlined curtain is three layers working together. Press each one to lift it from the others.

The face cloth is the one you chose; the interlining gives body and keeps warmth in; the lining shields the face from the sun and decides how dark the room goes.

The widths are joined and the side hems turned, the interlining locked in, the lining laid on and the heading made — a pencil pleat gathered on a tape, double or triple pinch pleats stitched at the base, goblets, eyelets for a pole, or a wave held at an even spacing by its track. Weights go in at the corners and seams, the hem corners are mitred, and the folds are trained in before the curtain goes to the window.

hung

Hung at the window, and handed over

Fitting starts with the wall found at the visit — stone, brick, concrete or plasterboard each takes its own fixing — and ends with the curtains drawn by the leading edge, never pulled by the middle. Every blind with a cord or chain is fitted with its safety device, and its cleat goes where the Office for Product Safety and Standards says it should:

“Cleats should be positioned out of children’s reach on an adjacent surface that is at least 1.5 metres from the floor.”

At a traditional sash window the lining earns its keep: Historic Environment Scotland measured heavy lined curtains cutting the heat lost through a sash window by 14%, and timber shutters by 51%.

Draw the curtain Headings, fitting and care