Period Curtains?

[michael]

With my metal pipe curtain pole, I think I used three pipe hangers, one in the centre and one at each end close to the finals thereby allowing plenty of unobstructed pipe for the curtain rings to run on. I guess the pipe supports at each end could be positioned to allow a swag to be hung or wrapped around the pipe between the support and the final.
Other drapery /material that doesn’t have to move can of course be attached in a swanky fashion to a pelmet board above the curtain pole. Some people have the curtain pole shrouded by the pelmet board in which case fancy finals are probably not required. Again this is another DIY job just requiring a length of timber or MDF blocked off at each end and on top with additional timber to form a box.If you have to follow the curves of a bay then use thin ply or hardboard on the front section and bend to suit. The DIY construction will be completly lost once the heavy material is attached.

Yes, the ‘greasy rag’ pipe suppliers were at the bottom of Caledonian Road.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Other drapery /material that doesn’t have to move can of course be attached in a swanky fashion to a pelmet board above the curtain pole. Some people have the curtain pole shrouded by the pelmet board in which case fancy finals are probably not required. Again this is another DIY job just requiring a length of timber or MDF blocked off at each end and on top with additional timber to form a box.If you have to follow the curves of a bay then use thin ply or hardboard on the front section and bend to suit. The DIY construction will be completly lost once the heavy material is attached.

Good advice. You can buy plastic bendy tracks to fit round bays in places like Dunelm Mill, or online, and swags generally go on a separate pole or pelmet in front of that. That book I recommended has instructions for drapery that you simply wrap around the pole (tacks help) with incredibly minimal sewing. It's called a scarf swag.

Cally Road! Had some drunken times there...so it's all smart now, then.

 

[Nigel Watts]

Cally Road! Had some drunken times there...so it's all smart now, then.

Smart it certainly isn't, unless your definition of smart is an absence (almost) of prostitutes, drug dealers, porn video vendors and greasy rag pipework suppliers.

 

[Nigel Watts]

I have now taken delivery of a volume entitled "The swag and tail design and pattern book" published by Merrick & Day which comes in a slip case complete with paper patterns. It contains drawings of different designs then step by step instructions on how to execute them. It all looks pretty clear and well done, but nevertheless still a little baffling to a complete beginner and someone not used to the terminology, but I now understand things like poles for draping swags over are just for show and that you need another track behind for the curtain proper and yes, with the the help of a bit of glue, string and velcro you can attach swags and things to brass poles.

I read in another book a statement that swags and tails are best left to the professionals. This is a call to arms if ever there was one. In my living room I have lime plastered, mended and replaced missing bits of joinery, cleaned and restored the cornice, done the fake woodgraining, hung the handprinted wallpaper (despite a "professionals only" warning in another book), and constructed a set of library bookcases in oak (solid and hand veneered). I am damned if I am going to quit now and hand over to the professionals!

 

[JoceAndChris]

I am damned if I am going to quit now and hand over to the professionals!

That's the spirit! The beauty if DIY is that there is no deadline. You can go as slow as you like and be a real perfectionist.. worst case, you will end up with patchwork curtains coz you make a mistake measuring. I find that no-one really notices this, though of course it's very annoying. And it's so satisfying to make something you are proud of and build your skill set. (and not hand over the huge sums profesionnals demand for big bay windows) Make sure you measure more than once.

Can't wait to hear how you get on!

 

[jocelyn plummer]

The swag and tail design and pattern book is the one I used--- they turned out well. You just need to find a good sized space in which to work, step by step!

 

[Nigel Watts]

My thinking now is (still work in progress):

gold/mustard coloured silk (possibly velvet) with olive green tail linings.

Three swags over a chunky (two and a half inch dia?) reeded oak pole with oak, part gilt finials, middle swag smaller than the outer two to acknowledge the semicircular window shape, swags and tails edged with a fringe of alternating green and yellow, possibly in slightly brighter shades than the fabric.

Curtains in mustard hung on subsidary unlaquered brass pole (1 inch?), possibly with the same fringe, with tie backs (rope and tassels in matching colours?).

Everything lined and interlined. One window is north, the other south. The latter will need some kind of blind (or third, inner, lace type curtain?) to protect the curtain.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Sounds completely orgasmic. I love curtains!!!

Your south facing window presents the same problem as mine...I don't want to hang silk only to have it rot in ten years. (or ever, in fact) The interlining and lining will protect it to a very large degree, so in your case I wouldn't bother with a blind but would monitor the situation over the next few years. If the linings are getting bleached out you could then act with your blind/lace curtain. You can buy antiqued lace curtain panels in a variety of sizes, but a) is it just too grannified? b) you lose the view.

In my case I am completely stuck because I want to fix my cloud blinds behind the shutters and there is only a 2 and 1/2 inch gap to the window. So I thought I'd make something really filmy and compacting that the shutters could close over. Linings would make them too bulky. I can't hang curtains outside the shutters as they need the room to swing back. So maybe I'll have to give up...or use polyester

Oh well, I can cheer myself with thoughts of the other 32 curtains that are needed.

 

[Nigel Watts]

I spent my lunch hour yesterday talking about my curtains to two charming ladies in Libery's soft furnishings department.

In rekon I need 51 yards of fabric for my two windows (each about nine feet tall by eight feet wide, triple pleats, swags, tails). Raw silks, which come in a great range of colours and shades seem to be in the £30 a metre vicinity. The much shiner refined silks, some of which have a little cotton mixed in, seem to be about £60-70. The very sophisticated damasks from people like Gainsborough are in the £100 plus range. The Henry Newbery trimmings were very nice indeed, but I havn't estimated the amount or cost of these yet. Various samples have been requested.

50x30=£1,500; 50x70= £3,500; 50x120=£6,000 + poles + linings + trimmings

I am tempted to go for the raw silk on this basis. The gainsboroughs are definitely out. The question is whether it is worth paying double for the refined silk.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Oh Nigel, and I thought I was bad!!

If you are seriously thinking of spending 6k on fabric I would suggest you take a trip to Singapore; you could have a fab break and get the raw silk in every rainbow colour at £6 per metre on Arab Street. (that's not even bargaining particularly hard)

I would go for raw silk rather than refined silk and I wouldn't buy it in Liberty's, though I love Liberty's. I'm going to get mine from the James Brindley range at http://www.queenshill.com

Unless you are very rich, in which case do what you want!

 

[Moo]

I like the idea of a trip to Singapore, but it would be more economical to ask someone who's travelling there anyway to get the stuff for you.
Then, with the money you'd have saved, you could get them professionally made.

And now for a real test of PPUK's usefulness:

Who knows someone (an airline pilot? a tycoon? a white slaver?) who travels regularly enough to be able to return with samples?

 

[Nigel Watts]

This is an old thread I know, but I am a slow worker. I have started up a blog where I will be relating progress. I dont know what the etiquette for these things is but here is the address for anyone interested.

http://fitzwalter.blogspot.com

 

[JoceAndChris]

I'll be following that with interest Nigel - the mock up in lining fabric looks great! Very impressed indeed.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

How do I follow that blog---it is fascinating. Am on facebook. All too technical for me to sort it out!

 

[essexbearhunter]

Just a thought - which could lessen the amount of sewing AND the money needed :

buy recycled/secondhand.

A quick internet search brings up several companies including

http://www.changingcurtains.co.uk/index.html which is in Highgate (so not too far away).

In case the idea of going secondhand seems to take the shine off things, remember Lady Iliffe of Basildon Park got most of her furnishings that way, going to auctions when great houses were being broken up. The early 19th century silk damasks in the Dining Room were from Ashburnham Place as were the large pelmet boards in the Octagon Drawing Room, whilst the damask on the walls of the Green Drawing Room were created from a set of Edwardian curtains from Englefield House.

....and what are antiques if not very secondhand furniture?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Just a thought - which could lessen the amount of sewing AND the money needed :

buy recycled/secondhand.

A quick internet search brings up several companies including

http://www.changingcurtains.co.uk/index.html which is in Highgate (so not too far away).

In case the idea of going secondhand seems to take the shine off things, remember Lady Iliffe of Basildon Park got most of her furnishings that way, going to auctions when great houses were being broken up. The early 19th century silk damasks in the Dining Room were from Ashburnham Place as were the large pelmet boards in the Octagon Drawing Room, whilst the damask on the walls of the Green Drawing Room were created from a set of Edwardian curtains from Englefield House.

....and what are antiques if not very secondhand furniture?

And what are period properties if not very big antiques you can live in?

 

[Cloudscape]

And what are period properties if not very big antiques you can live in?

Brilliant. Suddenly my whole life makes sense. 8)

 

[JoceAndChris]

Pity not many see it in that way - they want the sanitised antique version. A lot of people I know would like to think that they live in a period property, when actually it's a period shell with a completely modernised interior.

Too depressing, back to curtains.

Just a thought - which could lessen the amount of sewing AND the money needed :

buy recycled/secondhand.

A quick internet search brings up several companies including

http://www.changingcurtains.co.uk/index.html which is in Highgate (so not too far away).

I know that shop, those ladies. I'll always be grateful to them for educating me about thick, fluffy interlinings - if your house is cold, they're really worth considering. Like curtain blankets, but you could have thin silk on the exterior.

However it would be cheaper to buy the most expensive fabric you can find and make your own than get that Highgate shop to modify their second hand curtains and hang them for you!

I'm all for reusing lovely old fabrics, but so many of them are hideous, and often they'd need to be so time-consumingly modified it's quicker just to make from scratch. Plus you can then use the same fabric for other touches round the room.

 

[Schoolmarm]

What material do they use for the thick fluffy interlining?

 

[Nigel Watts]

Bump and Domett seem to be the most traditional:

http://www.merrick-day.com/acatalog/Interlining.html

I am using domett for my silk curtains. The interlinings have to be lockstiched by hand to the main fabric except at the top where herringbone stitching is used. The linings should then be lockstitched to the interlining. This makes the three layers of the curtains hold together and behave like a thicker fabric, as well as providing more insulation and UV protection for the main fabric.