BUY? - MAKE?

keep all options available. Consider the following:

Ready Made Lace Curtains

• Immediate availability
• Attractively scalloped or woven side and bottom hem patterns
• Gathered rod pocket – not capable of traversing rod
• If there are hems they are single hems
• Fixed sizes
• Single narrow panels
• More economical than custom made

Do-It-Yourself Lace Curtains

• Custom length as required
• Can be pinch pleated to open and close
• Wider width panels
• Wider selection of Lace Material patterns
• Time consuming
• Requires wide and long table for cutting purposes
• Almost always less expensive

Custom Lace Curtains

• Most of the same advantages as Do-It_Yourself
• Expensive
  

  Sew Your Own Curtains

• Best quality sewing
• Professional advice

These are all very important considerations but not the only ones. The patterns you find in Ready Made Lace Curtains usually are different from those available in Lace Yardage so this will also have to be part of your decision. Also if you desire Cotton Lace Panels they can usually be found only in Ready Made Lace Curtains mostly more expensive. Most Lace Material available by the yard is Polyester unless you get into the very expensive Lace Patterns. Make sure, if you choose to Do-It-Yourself that you pick Lace Fabric that is meant to be used for Curtains and not Bridal or Stretch Lace.

You will find that the quality of Lace, both in Lace Yardage and in Ready Made Lace Curtains varies a great deal. On our site we feature Heritage Lace, a fine quality Lace made in the U.S.A. As well as Lace Material from Scotland, France, Chine and Germany. All of these Lace products were chosen for their quality, not on the basis of the lowest price.

There is something to be said for having someone else do the work. Although it is much easier it does not come with a sense of accomplishment. We do have complete sewing instructions on our web siteand are personally available on Toll Free 1-866-775-LACE (5223) from 9AM to 6PM (California Time) for advice.

Buy Ready Made Curtains

This Blog is all about which Curtains to use and not about style. That is a subject for another time. It’s your decision on how to proceed and we wish you the very best success in your design project.

Bolts of lace curtain fabric are woven in widths corresponding to the length of the valance or tier desired, generally in approximately 14 yards to a bolt. You cut off as much of the bolt as you need, turn it sideways so that the width of the bolt becomes the length of the lace window treatment. This is a real advantage for a lace window treatment since, on a wide window, there is no seam to mar the look.

When you find a Macrame ring lace valance material or other lace such as this it is generally purchased by the foot or yard which is definitely an advantage, You only need to purchase exactly what you need for the width of your window. The final decision you have to make is how much gather (fullness) that you need. That varies by how much of the pattern you want to see. In Europe the common way to show a lace cafe, valance or tier is stretched out almost flat. In the U.S. a window treatment such as this is gathered more fully. There can be a gather of 1 ½ times the length of the rod up to 2 ½ times the length depending on the look you want to achieve. Some weaves are also thicker than others and need less yardage to achieve the look you need. Good luck with your next lace window covering project.

Polyester does have some distinct advantages when considering its use for lace

Nottingham Cotton Lace Curtains

curtains and lace draperies for your home. Let’s start with the important characteristics of polyester.

• Polyester curtains resist stretching.
• Polyester curtains wash well resisting wrinkling and shrinking.
• Polyester fabric is resistant to mildew. It is ideal to use for shower curtains and bathroom tiers and valances.
• Most polyester laces hang well. Polyester fibers are often mixed with cotton and wool because they hang better.
• Polyester material is washed in warm water in the gentle cycle and hang after the spin cycle.
• Polyester material requires little to no ironing.
• Polyester does not take a dye if a different color is required.
• Generally Polyester is less expensive.

Polyester curtain lace

Cotton lace curtains have a more natural feel or has a natural hand which is the way it is described in the trade. Cotton is durable but more susceptible to wear and tear than Polyester. Here are some of the major characteristics of cotton to consider:

• Cotton lace curtains have a softer overall warm look.
• Cotton irons well and can withstand heat.
• Cotton fabric is subject to staining but can be bleached.
• Cotton lace curtains in the bathroom are more susceptible to mildew.
• Cotton draperies will wear more quickly when exposed to the sun
• Cotton material will shrink the first time it is washed.
• Cotton can be dyed any color you need
• Madras and Nottingham lace window coverings imported from Scotland are woven from cotton.

We have customers that have used Cotton or Polyester in various room settings including Arts and Crafts, Victorian, Traditional or Contemporary. You will have to make the final call on which to use. I hope this will be of some help when making your decision when purchasing lace window coverings. Check in to our blog from time to time to find more tips on window designs and window covering sewing tips.

• Inside Mount Curtain Rods – This type of rod is meant to be installed inside the window frame and are either spring loaded to jam into each side of the frame or bracket mounted firmly to each side. They are designed for use with stationary gathered curtains or draperies. The principal advantage to this treatment is that the curtain stays within the window frame and exposes what may be an attractive molding surrounding the window. It also minimizes the effect of a window covering in the total overall design if this is one of your goals

• Plain Projection Curtain Rods – This type of rod is to be used with stationary gathered curtains or draperies. These rods are generally mounted to the wall high enough so that the curtain hides the top molding and an inch or more to the outside of the side moldings. This way the entire window and moldings do not show and just the window curtains show.
• Traverse Curtain and Drapery Rods – This type of rod is used in order to be able to open and close your curtains or draperies when desired. The most commonly available are for French Pleated (Pinch Pleat) curtains and are used with drapery hooks that fit onto the curtain and into the rod. There is a European style, if you can find it, that can also be used for non pleated curtain panels as well that comes with springloaded clips that hold the fabric.

• Decorator  Curtain Rods – This type of rod can come in a version for gathered curtains or traverse-able for open and shut versions. A decorator rod comes in wood, wrought iron or fancy metal finishes, the most common being brass with decorative end finials.

As a suggestion, if you are using a gathered curtain panel that you may want to obtain your curtain or drapery first before purchasing a rod. This will allow you to be certain that your new rod is of the proper diameter to easily accommodate the rod pocket in the curtain panel. Rods of all kinds can be purchased on many on-line sites. They can, surprisingly, also be obtained at Home Depot, Joann’s or Lowe’s.

Good luck with your next window covering project and please remember to visit our Olde Worlde Lace web site.

If you are doing several windows you can successfully use the separate dye lots on different windows. Even using extremely different dye lots is ok if the windows are on two facing walls. Lighting is never the same on adjacent walls so the dye lot variation is not at all obvious.

We hope this information is useful for you. You may also want to review our window covering decorating tips section on our web site for ideas on the many ways to design window coverings.

There is one sure way to know, when ordering, that a web site is secure. Knowing this will eliminate the risk of having your financial information or, for that matter your email address or your mailing address, compromised. As you may have noticed, when you see a web site address in your web browser it always starts with http://. This is normal but it will change if the web site is legitimate when you are ordering and get to the page where you are asked for your credit card number. At this point it is very important that you look at the web site address shown in the web browser. When asked for your credit information on a legitimate site the address will no longer start with http://.  On a properly secure web site the page on which you add credit information there will be a different address.   You will see that the http:// has changed to https://. This small change means that you do not have to worry. It is a secure site and your information will be fully protected.

There are times, however, when you would like to ask questions about an order to make sure you get exactly what you need.  For those times please call our toll free number. We are always happy to take your order over the phone.  On our next blog we will get back to lace curtains and such.  I promise.

First of all, for lace curtains, there is no rule saying what amount of gather is correct. The amount of gather that looks right to you is exactly what you should use. Perhaps I should explain what I mean by gather. When you use curtain panels on a rod and it is stretched out flat it is said to be no gather at all. If you use a panel that is 1 ½ times as wide as the rod it is 1 ½ gathered.and so on. All of the “Heritage lace curtains” shown on our web site are gathered 1 ½ fullness. Our “Designer Collection” curtains are 2 or 3 times gathered fullness. The picture on the left is an example of a Heritage window treatment and the right is one from our Designer Collection that is 2 times fullness. Due to the variations of panel widths available and your actual window sizes you may not come out with the exact same fullness. Try to get them approximately the same.

If you have any doubt about how full you would prefer I have two suggestions that may help you decide. The first suggestion is to drape a sheet over an existing rod and place it into several positions and see what you think. The second suggestion is to order the 1 ½ fullness as in the Heritage section of our site. When you install them you will probably know immediately whether this is the look you are trying to achieve. If you think you may like a fuller look just scrunch them together more. If you see that you would like greater fullness you can order additional panels at that time.

You also can always call us on our toll free number 1-866-775-LACE (5223) and we can talk about it.