Curtains for bay window- help please I'm clueless!

bevally

Hi all,
Grateful for any help.
We have recently bought a house which has large bay windows in the living room and front bedroom.
The overall rail size is 287cm in the bedroom. We can't really afford made to measure at the moment but don't want to waste money on ready made that then don't fit right and I'm getting very confused by all the info at the mo!
Have found two different sets of curtains that I like not sure if either would be ok
Pair 1 = 259cm width
Pair 2 = 229cm width
Both are pencil pleat.
Please help a total curtain novice!

sew_what

You're meant to have your twice as much curtain as rail so they look full enough when gathered, so the wider ones would be better :-)
The John Lewis guide to buying curtains is very good - I can't post a link but I'm sure you'd find it with a quick google!

DVardysShadow

sew_what wrote: »

You're meant to have your twice as much curtain as rail so they look full enough when gathered, so the wider ones would be better :-)

That is what curtain shops say, but they would say that wouldn't they. 1.5 times still looks ample and on the whole, I think 2x is too much.

Mrs_Arcanum

If you want decent pencil pleats the modern heading tape is not really heavy enough to do a decent job (used to be made out of bullet webbing). General rule of thumb is the lighter the fabric the more width you need.

These days it is whatever suits.

Old house had wall to wall (14') heavy lined curtains with hand sewn triple pleats. Each curtain was over 16' wide.

cheeswright

we have huge bay windows - far larger than the factory standards

I simply buy the widest I can find - and dont pull the tape headers
then put loads of hooks in them

they look good and dont have all the washing / ironing problems curtains with pulled tapes do
( these are the little bits of string that run through the heavy binding at the top of the curtain)

the width given on curtains is usually for each curtain -so you will get twice that much fabric with wise
its not the window width - if buying online there's usually a link to actual sizes
but either of these pairs will be wide enough - infact each curtain streched flat will be nearly wide enough on its own

I dont know why its done like this....megga stupid and assumes some kind of arcane knowledge of window measuring

like bras with chest + or minus whatever that leave people with minus cup sizes...dead stupid

hope that helps

example just incase you dont believe me ( link )