Measuring and cutting should be carefully done for successful results. Allowances for headings and hems depend on the style of the curtains. Curtains that are unlined require a larger heading at the top. Headings of thin materials are usually three or three and a half inches. Chintzes and similar weight materials take four-inch headings and the heaviest materials six-inch headings.
In measuring glass curtains allow for a three-inch hem at the top and a two-inch hem at the bottom unless the edges are to be bound with fringes. Allowance should be made for shrinkage.
Also some nets, voiles and marquisettes sag more or less and for this reason it is a good plan to hang the curtains for a day or so before hemming in order to have them even at the bottom. Over-draperies should have deep hems unless they are to be finished with braid or other decoration.
In ordering materials for hangings, one must carefully consider the width of the material and the amount of fullness desired. Most curtain material comes in thirty-six-inch and fifty-inch widths.
The former is wide enough to make a drape for one side of the ordinary window, and usually permits sufficient fullness in the folds.
The fifty-inch width, however, may often be cut in half, so that the pair of curtains may be obtained from a single length of material. Each piece is then twenty-five inches wide. The hems at the sides usually take off another two inches, but the curtain is sufficient to give decorative effect and properly frame the window. When this is done, however, the curtain cannot be drawn. On wide openings, the full fifty-inch width of the material should be used.
All curtains that are supposed to hang in folds, where economy is not an important feature, should have what is known as one hundred per cent fullness. That is, the material should be twice as wide as the space it is to cover. When measuring material for over-draperies that have a figured design, one should give careful attention to the repeat pattern so that it is in corresponding positions in each pair.
Sometimes it is necessary to sacrifice half a yard to a yard of material in order to provide for this. This is one of the most important features to remember in planning for curtains. Always use a yardstick when measuring for curtains as an ordinary tape measure is apt to slip and the measurements may not be correct.
By:Kyle Widner
