Ready Made or Made to Measure Curtains...?? Help!

Quidco-ette

Hi all,

I am soon to be moving into a new apartment which has a window measuring 12ft wide by 8ft high (floor to ceiling windows) and am desperately trying to find curtains to fit. I am finding prices of over £200 for some curtains and this is way too much for a money saver like me.

So my question is whether anyone knows of somewhere that stocks cheap ready made curtains to fit my window or maybe a cheap made to measure option?

Any help is appreciated xoxo

ormus

try dunelms.
http://www.dunelm-mill.com/

Doozergirl

8ft is 240cm - I've only seen ready made curtains up to 228cm - seems to be standard in John Lewis, Dunelm Mill etc.

Dunelm Mill I found to be reasonably priced and that's where I've just bought some but yes, the price is still going to be around 200 if not more.

My SIL is curtain mad and often buys very posh ones from ebay. I've previously bought curtains from the Curtain Exchange as well. People sell their old curtains through them. When people move house etc. sometimes perfectly decent curtains just don't fit any more!

Quidco-ette

Great, thanks for your replies.

I think I had better start saving!!

sallyrsm

we lived in a house in Germany that had HUGE windows and simply used two pairs of the same curtain, so two pairs to fit a 6' wide windown which are much more common... you don't need to sew the edges of the pairs together but you can if you like, so you can pull them in one go. It was a much cheaper option than made to measure....

Doozergirl

I forgot that Ikea sell curtain panels - they're not lined so won't have any insulating factors (might not be too much of an issue in a new build) but they are all three mteres long, so a big enough drop for you. They're a lot cheaper than normal curtains. I've bought some previously but didn't like the tab top so I got the mother in law to get rid of them and just fold it over and sew along so that I could thread the curtain pole straight through. You'll need two pairs, as mentioned above.

Habitat do them as well, really nice ones - more expensive obviously but still cheaper than made to measure

ormus

for really cheap curtains, try the oxfam type shops too.

toffeegirl

A material warehouse may be an alternative - with someone local to make them up if you don't feel up to it yourself.

Are the curtain rails / tracks installed? Just be aware that these curtains will be heavy..... so good fixings are a must. (I made lined curtains for my hallway and they weigh a ton.)

twinklefish

I had the same problem in my old flat. I'm lucky my mum is a great seamstriss and when I moved in, she recycled some of her old curtains for me making a false pelmit at the top to extend them to the required length.

What she did was use curtain lining fabric at the top to extend the over-all length of the curtain then hid the lining fabric by using another piece of fabric to create a pelmet (skirt) effect along the top. They looked great! Was easy to do as the original curtains were much wider than I needed so she had extra fabric. I've also seen her do the same thing but use a co-ordinating fabric and she did tie backs in the same fabric to pull the whole look together. But, dont do it at the bottom as it always looks like it's been done to lengthen!

Once I redecorated I found Ikea the only place that did ready made curtains long enough. Not all of them are tab tob and but they are all unfished at the bottom so you can turn them up to your exact length.....or leave them undone for the 'shabby chic' look (i.e. the can't be bothered look!!!)

Tx