Buy or make curtains?

Sarjsmith

I don't know where you live, but if you are in the North west try and find "The Bankrupt Shop" or "Abacan" they have thousands of rolls of material (no exaggeration) and are very cheap...............I've just found the link for the bankrupt shop
http://thebankruptshop.com/index.htm
Hope this helps

Hawthorn

The Range if you have one near you, do some decent curtains, as do dunelm mills, and they both carry fabric if you don't find what you are looking for.
It's easy enough to make curtains, but can get pricey. The sense of pride you get for a job well done is great though

Atalanta

I always assume that making will work out cheaper than buying for the same quality....when I have bought curtains and they seemed good value they have always ended up being poor quality and not lasting well. When we moved here I had to make curtains for 2 huge bay windows at the front of the house as it would have been SO expensive to buy them. I splashed out on some really lovely fabric from John Lewis for the downstairs room, it ended up costing £200 :eek: - but I wanted to get good quality curtains that would last for years, and new curtains for the size needed there would have cost over £500.
So if you've found fabric you love, then I would go for it - you've got to live with them after all. I definitely think it makes a difference if you line them though.
Good luck!

mumof4our

Try Debenhams when they have one of their blue cross sales on. We got lucky and got two matching sets 90x90 for about £90 reduced from £350ish.

flea72

that fabric isnt wide enough for your window, so you would have to double it, and that means you will have a seam running down the middle. and as said above, with a pattern repeat of 25" that will take some matching, so you need to buy alot more fabric than anticipated

plus lining and headers, i dont think you will get one pair for £55

However, places like The Range and Dunelm, will have similar curtains ready made for that price, and if not already lined, you should be able to rustle that part up yourself fairly cheaply

Flea

pennypinchingmum

hmm i'm confused maybe i am getting my measurements wrong. I think maybe i could do with a couple more metres. I'm afraid i work in metric and fabric works on imperial so it requires alot of converting on my part. I was planning on 4-5 metres per curtain giving not quite double but almost. i already have the header. Could someone explain where my meausrements are wrong? I'm baffled.

angelavdavis

I would also recommend Dunelm Mill for fabric and ready made curtains.

I have to make my own curtains as none of my windows are standard sized (my lounge bay is 3m x 5m). :eek: I had back ache for a week after making my last lot of curtains and the fabric alone cost me almost £500 so I won't be replacing them anytime soon!

paddy's_mum

My concern would be that nowhere can I see that that fabric is washable. If it isn't, you will be spending a small fortune on dry cleaning before too much longer.

mags50_2

Is this any good? It's white/black instead of gold/black...but it might be worth asking the seller if he does other colours. It's £5.50 a metre with free P/P

http://uk.four.ebid.net/perl/auction.cgi?auction=1219684373-13155-0&mo=auction

HTH

(I am in no way anything to do with this seller...just thought it looked a bit of a bargain )

Rikki

pennypinchingmum wrote: »

hmm i'm confused maybe i am getting my measurements wrong. I think maybe i could do with a couple more metres. I'm afraid i work in metric and fabric works on imperial so it requires alot of converting on my part. I was planning on 4-5 metres per curtain giving not quite double but almost. i already have the header. Could someone explain where my meausrements are wrong? I'm baffled.

Material needed for 90"by 90" curtains.
54" is standard curtain fabric width. If your curtain needs to be 90" wide you will need two curtain widths. There are 39" in a meter. So you will need 2.5 meters x 2 for each curtain. For the two curtains you need 10 meters of fabric. This will allow you a decent hem and top on the understanding you are just using header tape.. BUT: The curtains are patterned so you will need another couple of meters to allow for pattern matching. Personally I would buy 12 meters of fabric minimum just to make this one pair of curtains. Any left becomes cushion covers or buy extra to include cushion covers.

The fabric you have chosen ( I like it) is 150cm wide or 60" in old money. I would still stick to the same 12 meters you will just have a little to cut off the sides.
At £5.99 a meter for the fabric one pair of unlined curtains it will cost £71.88 (12m)

Material needed for the 54" by 90"
You only need the one curtain width for these curtains and again you will need 2.5meters for each curtain.
At £5.99 a meter one pair of this size unlined curtains will cost £29.95 (5m)

17 meters of fabric is the minimum I would buy for this project but I would probably buy 20 meters (£120) to allow for contingency plan and the pattern repeat. Pattern repeat is every 25"

Personally I would line the curtains to get the best affect and drape.

Hope this helps.