Making Drapes

Back in the late 1980s, when we were still living in Massachusetts, I had a business called Soft Furnishings. I made all sorts of interior decorating items: pillows, welted cushions, pinch pleated drapes, balloon shades, roman shades, covered headboards, dust ruffles, and more. By the time we moved to California in 1991, I told Rick that if he told anybody I knew how to make all that stuff, I’d shoot him. I was really burnt out. We moved all the way across the country with two young children in tow and it was time for a change. And who knows, if I had decided to continue that business, maybe I wouldn’t have become the quilting maniac that I am today.

But back to drapes. During the hot weather this summer I decided that I needed to make some old fashioned pinch pleated drapes for our dining room windows. We get the hot afternoon sun in that window and the room just bakes. I figured some heavily lined drapes would help keep the room cooler in the summer, not to mention warmer in the winter.

Being a bit of a pack rat, I still had a roll of buckram from all those years ago, so all I needed was fabric and lining. I found some great polka-dotted linen (fate, don’t you think?) at the outdoor sale at Fabric Depot. The fabric is a pale green with a tan dot. The woman in the home dec department sold me this lining that is flannel on one side and has great drapeability. I brought all the fabric home and was so thrilled.

Then I started with the cutting and sewing and, once again, I remembered why I quit doing this kind of work. You really need big tables to do the cutting and then you’ve got to do all that pinning and pressing of hems. It’s just hard to handle the big cuts of fabric for the drapery panels if you’ve only got limited space. But I persevered and am pleased with the results.

The drapes will stay open most of the time. I already had the rod in place (the same rods are in the living room and we bought them when we first moved here).

The biggest dilemma was finding the rings to go on the rod. Most of the rings these days have clips on them, but I wanted the old-fashioned kind with the little ring at the bottom. And I didn’t want to pay a lot for them either. So I had to improvise.

I used binder clips paired with the plastic rings you use on the back of roman shades. I made 22 rings, and it only cost about $6. The heavy-duty rounded pins stick up into the back of each pleat. The rounded part goes through the little plastic ring, which you don’t see once the drapes go onto the rod.  The silver binder clips match the silver rod and look great. Two days of work and I love my new drapes.