Effective window dressing

Press, 1 June 1977, Page 13

Effective window dressing

Windows are an important part of a room, and curtains should enhance their attractions. Whether you choose your curtains for privacy, warmth, protection from the sun or pure decoration. make sure they look good.

Making your own curtains means that you have exactly the material, colour and style you want, and you’ll save money. But there are pitfalls.

Decide first on the allover effect you wish to achieve in the room, and ensure that the curtaining is a contributing feature. Express yourself through your choice, but make it possible for others to enjoy it too. Don’t feel you must have patterned curtains. Interesting texture in a plain fabric can create a harmonious effect in any setting. Remember that a

large pattern can be overpowering in a small room, and a tiny print look fussy in a big room. Avoid patterns that look best lying flat. Most of the time the curtains will be in folds. Bear in mind too that only a third, or less, o' your room should be patterned. Don’t get carried away at sales and buy on the spur of the moment. If it’s

not the fabric you really want, it’s not cheap. Curtains are an expensive item, but don’t skimp on the material. The curtains will be there for a long time. Spend the extra money and make a thorough and attractive job of them. The filmier the fabric the more you’ll need. Ordinary gathered curtains need one and a half times the width of the rail. For pinch-pleating and similar, allow two and a half to three times the rail measurement. Also your patterned fabrics must match right across the widths. This will entail some wastage. Ask your retailer for help in calculating how much extra length to allow for this. The average allowance is 6in, but the exact amount depends on the pattern. Pelmets are no longer popular. Instead there is increased use of fancy headings — elaborate pleatings, cafe-style curtains, and decorative timber or metal curtain-rods. As with all sewing, the small details matter. Measure and cut your lengths carefully. Choose the right sewing thread — acrylic thread lor acrylics, cotton thread for cottons and linens.

Straight hems and seams are important on good drapes. If you are making up several widths of sheer net curtaining, don’t join them at the sides because they’ll pucker. Just let them hang together and overlap. If you’re working with velours, satins or silks, the pile should be cut one way, running up from the bottom, and hems should be hand-sewn. Use the machine carefully, these fabrics are bruised by machining and unpicking is all too obvious. Materials Cottons: Cotton is the most popular and versatile curtaining fabric. Hardwearing and relatively inexpensive it takes ‘ dve readily, producing bright hard-edged patterns. An average price for pure cotton is $8.50 a metre. Cotton combines successfully with a variety of synthetics, and in Christchurch shops at the moment there are preshrunk cotton-rayon fabrics from West Germany in muted florals at $12.25 a metre, smooth satincottons ideal for bedroom curtains and spreads at $10.60 a metre, cottondacron at $6.20 for filmy light-weight curtains, and for a really sumptuous finish to a drawing-room, cotton-velous curtaining at $ll - $l4 a metre in rich shades of ruby, turquoise and gold.

New cottons: Several new lines in bold eyecatching cottons are creating a lot of customer interest in New Zealand shops. None of them are cheap, but their bright solid colours and largescale designs come as a.refreshing change to more traditional fabrics. Undoubtedly these are the fabrics of tomorrow.

The hundred-per-cent Marimekko cottons have been available in New Zealand for some years, but furnishing fabric buyers are only now feeling adventurous enough to order in any quantity. Even now they feel that the giant patterns of the Marimekko prints will only appeal to only a small group of home-decorators. Marimekko fabrics come from Finland and the average price in New Zealand is $l4 per metre. As well as the soft cottons there are three floralpatterned P.V.C. coated cottons, which are suitable for table cloths and unbonded blinds. Zab is Helen and Ken Abson, a Scandinavian couple living in Australia,

whose swirling outsize designs are printed on Japanese base-cloths. At only $8 plus, per metre, these are good value. Two impressive Zab prints feature pillar-box red theatre posters and geometric shapes on a white ground, and a simple curving tide of graduated colours, including green and a soft pink. For a child’s room there is a splashy print with simulated child-art as a pattern — the stick figures are almost life-size. Some of the new cottons seem to be copies of the Marimekko prints. Boras cottons would appear to be in this category. They retail at $10.50 a metre and come from Sweden. Generally the patterns are not exciting. Linens: Another popular natural fibre, linen combines well with cotton and man-made fibres. It is a bulky cloth, with a coarse weave which tends to give patterns a characteristic smudgy appearance which can be attractive. An average, price for linen would be $8 a metre, while a cotton and linen mix would retail at $lO.BO per metre.

Synthetics: Acrylic fabrics sell under a large range of brand names, which include Acrilan, Courtelle, Dralon, Orlon and Vonnell. Acrylics come not only in open sunfilter weaves, but also in solid fabrics. Combined with another fibre or by itself, an acrylic weave is an easy-care fabric with strong durability, and such lines as Dralon are slow to fade. Solid acrylic fabrics are warm to the touch and have a wool-like quality. Some of the smartest fabrics in shops at the moment are monochromatic acrylics with broad vertical stripes in differing tones. They are suited to a wide range of uses in home decorating. As curtains ■ this material drapes well and always looks crisp. Another effect in acrylics is a corded taffeta look, average price $7.

Both acrylics and polyesters, together with other synthetics, are big business these days because of the big boom in sheer curtaining. Every second house has its windows shrouded in sheer net curtains, which keep out the light and view, but no doubt provide privacy, at least in the day-time. New Zealand-made Terylene fabrics come in varying widths and meshes. A Christchurch firm is attaching continuous decorative borders, in white and beige florals, to these nets and offering them at $6 - $8 a metre. There is also a wide range of imported sheers in white and off-white with built-in borders and patterns. Coloured solar curtaining ranges from $7 - $l2 a metre, but for those who want the best, Delius of West Germany have a superior open weave in beige with darker threading, at $17.80. Linings Lining curtains gives them a professional look. It makes them hang well, helps to insulate the room, and prolongs the life of the curtains by protecting them from fading and rotting. Calico is a basic lining cloth at 85c a metre, but its has a harsh texture and is suitable only for simple curtains. It should always be washed before use and ironed while damp. Cotton sateen Is recommended for most curtains. It is $2 a metre and comes in several colours. Cotton sateen is especially successful where a bulkier look is required with the softer acrylics. The hundred per cent acrylic linings are made of counterstat quality

material, to prevent static electricity and a clinging effect when paired with acrylic curtaining. An interesting Innovation from Britain with an unusual name is Bump, a brushed cotton interlining that provides excellent insulation between lining and curtain. Used in any quantity, and added to tile cost of the other materials, it could prove expensive at $3.50 a metre. Turn in the sides of your lining, but don’t join them to the curtains. This way you’ll avoid any puckering ’if both are washed together. Tracks and tapes A range of metal and plastic curtain tracks are now made in two Christchurch factories. The metal track has a baked enamel finish in bronze, white and silver. There is a track for every curtaining requirement and type of window, including a double track which allows a heavy curtain to cover the sunfilter curtains at night. Both metal and plastic track can be bent into curves, and the metal track may be cord or hand drawn. For reasonably formal and heavy curtains, an Auckland firm makes a range of wooden curtain rods from New Zealand hardwoods at $1.50 per foot. These have a solid traditional air and are complete with turned finials at the end. and wooden curtain rings with screw eyes set in. These rods are also available with a sliding track set into the wood. Retailers stress the importance of choosing the tape that is suitable to your track. They feel that homedecorators do not give this angle of curtain-making sufficient thought. Rufflette tape comes in white only, but can be dyed to match lining and curtaining. There is standard tape at 28c a metre, regis tape, with heavy nylon backing, for pencil-pleating at $1.30 a metre, duplex tape for knife-edge and pinch-pleating, and giraffe tape for stand-up headings. For use with synthetic sheers, there is a pure white telylene tape. A recent development in tape is a lining tape which allows the lining to be completely detachable, for extra washing or replacement. It is possible to combine any Rufflette curtain tape with this lining.