Making curtains.

Depends on where you are getting your curtain-making labour from. Magdas are a lot cheaper than Cassandras.

AFAIK if you can sew a straight line you can make curtains. All the ruffly bits are taken care of by the header tapes.

I don't have a sewing-machine so my kitchen curtains are made with a stapler.

Lead weights in the bottom hem inprove the 'hang' of thicker fabrics.

Owain

After my wife died and I had to re-size some curtains to fit the windows in the new bungalow, I used iron-on hemming tape to deal with hems etc rather than trying to sew them. This stuff

Still got to get some new curtains for other windows though, at the sorts of prices you mention :-(

That looks excellent!

Once the sewing machine is mastered it can't be as hard as making a model aeroplane.

Women manage.

Ah. The ones she took with her were so heavy they didn't need that. Full weight fabric bump interlining and fully lined against UV as well.

These are part of the 'double glazing' in the living room. Essentially they slash the heatloss from the single glazing

Its beggining to look like I should het a machine and scome scrap fabric and make up a dummy set to see how its done and then just crack on

maybe we can form a cartel..

I've done a bit of sewing - made some trousers but they ended up too small...so I reckon I can get the thing done OK.

The guide posted earlier has filled in a couple of blanks.

Have you checked a decent department store for ready mades? Somewhere like John Lewis.

Using a sewing machine isn't difficult once you've acquired the skill. But starting out on a big project using expensive materials ain't the way to learn. In the same way as building electronics. Best to start out with something simple and cheap, to learn on.

You make model aircraft with a sewing machine??

It has been known oddly enough - sewing silk panels together...

But no. the normal toools are woodworking ones.

It depends on what fabric you are using, and what lining and perhaps interlining is being used. We had some very heavy curtains made up about

second hand start around 150..

I would not be buyng a new one...

But good point none the less. Thank you.

Hmm, well I think its another case of people with too much money who are willing to pay. Brian

If you can't find what you want at sensible price, making them is relatively easy. Beginners however make all sorts of mistakes that end up looking bad, so do get practice in first & start with the smallest ones.

Blackout lining is usually used to stop long term fade. I can recommend adding thermal lining too, though it does add bulk when they're open. And there is always the question of whether you want light to come through or not when closed.

NT

In message <pugnvp$r79$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, Jeff Layman snipped-for-privacy@invalid.invalid writes

My wife used to make all our curtains, but recently circumstances have changed and she no longer has the time or space.

We found a woman who did clothing alterations, curtains and other things at a really good price. One day she mentioned that she was trained as a ship's upholsterer.

Son's house came with a shabby but good chaise longue. His father in law asked the posh upholsterer three doors down from him for a quote - over £1000. We asked our contact - she said bring it and the material here £150.

She was slow, but she did move premises during the job and the result was excellent. Since then she has made several sets of very large, heavy, lined curtains for him and they have all been quick, first class with no problems and, I'm told, inexpensive. She works, with her one big industrial sewing machine, in a single unit on an industrial estate. The machine is in the centre of a large open area, giving space and easy access all round. Nothing pretentious or in any way flash. When we collected the chaise she showed us the car seats she was rebuilding.

If you can find the right person to do the job, there's little point in diy except for interest.

On 11:19 8 Dec 2018, The Natural Philosopher snipped-for-privacy@invalid.invalid wrote in news:pug9ci$ih$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

When I made curtains they didn't hang "flat" and you could see annoying ruckles in the fabric when they were drawn. It should have happened but it did. I wouldn't do it again.

Using a sewing machine is like all acquired skills. Easy when you've learned that skill. No different from any other. But thinking it looks easy isn't the same as it being easy.

Must admit I'm surprised someone has got to Turnip's age and never used a sewing machine.

Out of seven plus billion on the planet, I'm betting everything that the majority haven't.

I have in fact used a sewing machine a lot when younger, even making my own trousers, enough to teach mne that mere use of a sewing machines is not the only skill required. As Dave would know if he had ever tried to make a garment with one. I can also knit and crochet. But not to a sufficiently high skill level to make it worth doing anything about.

If you do have decent sewing machine skills, You'll not have problems making curtains. Do a bit of Googling for the method.