How to Choose Fabric For Curtain
Whatever curtains you want, there is a fabric for the job – finding it is just a matter of knowing what to look for.
There’s more to shopping for curtain fabric than seeking out the perfect print or the weave that complements the colour scheme to perfection. With the wide range of weaves and weights of cloth available, make sure the one you buy will do the job you have in mind.
The two most important factors to bear in mind when looking for curtain fabric, in the way you do the home and design job, are resistance to fading and the weight of the fabric.
Light resistance curtains, being so close to windows, take a lot of punishment from sunlight. Make sure to choose fabrics that are resistant to fading and rotting by the sun’s rays, particularly for rooms which get the sun throughout most of the day.
Fabric weights, look at the weight and quality of the fabric. In general, all but the lightest curtains are worth lining, and even some of the thinner softer cloths which drape well look very limp unless they are lined. Heavyweight curtain fabrics are best made up into, full-length curtains, as they can look stiff and bulky when made up into sill-length curtains.
When you have decided what curtain fabric you want, it is worth investing in a metre to bring home by making the right choise. See how the fabric reacts both to the natural and the artificial light in the room by the way you can check colour and pattern against the existing furnishings. The extra expense is worthwhile to make sure you have made the right choice, and to avoid making an expensive mistake. The odd length of fabric can always be made into covers for scatter cushions.
Before the fabric is cut for you in the shop, check that there are no flaws in the weave. If it is a print, make sure that the pattern is printed square on the fabric – if you are joining widths to make up the curtain and the pattern is printed off the grain by more than a couple of centimetres, you will not be able to match the pattern without distorting the fall of the cloth.
Fabric care, the after-care of made-up curtains also needs some thought when choosing fabric. Unless a fabric is labelled and sold as pre-shrunk or fixed-finished, a shrinkage of between five and six per cent is considered normal, and even after pre-shrinking, a fabric can still shrink by up to three per cent.
It is always recommended that lined curtains should be dry cleaned. This is because the various components, the fabric, the lining and the thread, as well as the cord and tape, do not necessarily shrink at the same rate.
Remember the ‘true’ length of a curtain should be the drop it has to cover plus allowances for hem and heading.
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Tags: curtain, fabric, home design, how to choose fabric
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