There is quite a conundrum when it comes to working out how to measure curtains. It's not quite as simple as measuring your window and going from there, and it depends on the gathers and type of fabric you're using. With this guide, however, it's a breeze.
Begin by measuring the length of curtain you want from the top of the header to the bottom of the curtain. In most houses, where the windows are fairly generous but the ceilings not especially high, this would be a measurement from floor to ceiling, plus about 5cm extra to allow the curtains to just bag a touch as they touch the floor, but not to pool. If you want your curtains to pool – a la Rose Uniacke – add extra length to accommodate. If your house requires shorter curtains that do not reach the floor, simply measure from the floor to where they need to end.
You now need to decide the width of each curtain. For most purposes, you can work in half-widths: a single width (once hems have been accounted for) being about 130cm wide. You generally need to decide if you need 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 or 3 fabric widths per curtain. In order to decide, you also need to know how gathered you will want your curtains to be. For an entirely flat curtain, you can take the curtain widths at face value. You need each curtain to at least be half the width of the window, plus about 5cm to allow them to overlap, and 10-20cm so the curtains sit a little wider than the window. However, if you are gathering the curtains, you will need to account for the following rules of thumb; a medium tightness of gather requires twice the amount of fabric, and the tightest gathers need three times the amount of fabric. Do note that the lighter the fabric, the more you can gather the fabric to create attractive volume. So, if you want a ruffle sheer you will need to multiply your width by three, but if you have a very bulky fabric with lining, you won't be able to get away with much more than a double gather without it resisting.
The final step is to add seam and pattern allowance. For the seam allowance, add 10cm for the top and bottom of every drop. If you have chosen a plain fabric, or a stripe that runs vertically along the length of the fabric, your work is done, but if you have a patterned fabric, you need to find out the vertical repeat of the pattern. This is how big each repeat of the design is, which you need to account for in order for your curtain maker to match up the pattern. If you can't find this information online or from the seller, and you have the fabric to hand, you can often do it yourself by finding an unmistakable element in the design, finding where that element next repeats along the length, and measuring a vertical line between the two. That is the vertical repeat. If you can't do either of the above and need to guess, generally a 90cm repeat is a very large pattern, a 60cm repeat might be average for a big, blowsy bloom for example, and a ditsy little flower or check could be 15cm and under. You need to add that number once for every drop you have.
The golden rule when it comes to how to measure curtains is to measure everything twice. So measure it, measure it all again and then submit that to your chosen curtain maker. If it all seems too much, look at our edit or stylish ready made curtains instead.
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