How much gather in curtains

Direct Fabrics use 2x fullness for all eyelet and pencil pleat curtains unless stated otherwise and recommend 1. If using a fabric with a width of cm. So Direct Fabrics will use 3 widths of fabric to add more fullness and a better effect. Curtains can be confusing so we suggest looking at our full range of curtains.

We are confident you will love the quality and enjoy buying from our friendly professional team. Check out our hotel curtains range or our flame retardant curtain range. Plain fabrics, such as Sapphire or Botley look great with as much gather as possible, so these can even be selected as 3x gather if you desire, however patterned fabrics such as Alice will suffer with more gather as the pattern will become more obscure, see images below. L-R Sapphire Cream , Alice White , Botley White There is an increasing trend for less gather in curtains, a sort of minimalist, less-is-more approach and there are many fabrics that do look great with 1.

However, think carefully about what look you are trying to achieve, for example, if you are after privacy a flat panel is not going to offer this as well as a 3x gather, unless the fabric is a 4 or 5 on our density rating or is perhaps a lined voile or curtain. To achieve the pleated effect you notice at the top of most curtains, the curtains need to be wider than the track.

This extra fabric is then 'gathered up' using the strings in the tape stitched to the top of the curtain. The actual amount of gather depends on heading styles and personal preference, but as a general rule the width of your curtains should amount to double the width of your track. This is referred to as 'two times gather'.

Which size curtain should I buy? Ready-made curtains are sold in pairs but are labelled with the width of each curtain.

The smaller pair is going to give me one and a half times gather and the larger pair two and a half times gather. There's no correct answer to this dilemma. It comes down to personal preference. There are several factors you might like to bear in mind though:. Price: the smaller pair is going to be cheaper and we all have a limit to our budgets, so this might be the deciding factor for you.

Fabric: if your curtains are a light-weight, fine voile then they will need a little extra gather in order to look full. Stand on your step ladder to be at eye level with the pole or track, use your steel tape to measure its width and make a note.

If you are measuring a curtain pole do not include the finials in your measurement. Gather is a stylistic feature but it prevents your curtains from being a flat, taut piece of material across a window. To achieve this your curtains need to be wider than their track or pole. Next, work out the required drop of your curtains.

Whilst this is very much a case of personal taste there are three generally accepted lengths, or drops, for curtains:. For tab-top or pleated curtains make a note of your measurement as it is - this is the required drop for the type of curtain.

For eyelet or ring-top curtains write down your measurement then add 3. Quick and convenient, most people opt to buy curtains ready-made. Widely available in a huge selection of colours, fabrics and patterns they can be cheaper than their made-to-measure counterparts.