Advanced options
Each cut length is the finished drop plus 25cm for hems and headings, rounded up to a whole pattern repeat for patterned fabric. Total gathered width is the track width times the heading fullness, divided into widths ("drops") of your fabric.
What The Curtain Fabric Calculator Works Out
- Fabric drops needed: the track or pole width x the heading's fullness ratio (2 x for pencil pleat, 2.5 for pinch pleat, 1.5 for eyelets), divided by the fabric width (usually 137cm) and rounded up to whole widths shared across the pair. Measure the track, not the window; poles should extend 15 to 20cm beyond the frame each side.
- Fabric to buy: drops x the cut length, where each cut is the finished drop plus about 25cm for hems and heading turnings. A 150cm track at double fullness in standard-width fabric needs 3 drops of 245cm, 7.35 metres, before pattern matching.
- Pattern repeat: every cut after the first must start at the same point in the pattern, so each is rounded up to a whole number of repeats. A 64cm repeat on that window turns 245cm cuts into 256cm ones.
- Lining: the same number of drops, each the finished drop plus 15cm. Lining protects the face fabric from sun, improves the hang, and in thermal and blackout versions does honest work on heat loss and summer light.
- Hem and lining allowances (advanced): edit the 25cm and 15cm turnings. Deep double hems on floor-length curtains or a heavy weighted hem can want 30cm or more; a simple eyelet heading needs less.
- Pattern match (advanced): a half-drop match means alternate drops start half a repeat lower, so half a repeat is added to each cut before rounding, which is the extra the fabric label's "half drop" warning is about.
- Fabric and lining cost (advanced): metres x your prices. Curtain-weight fabric runs from about GBP 15 per metre to well over GBP 80 for designer prints; standard cotton sateen lining is GBP 6 to GBP 10, blackout GBP 10 to GBP 15.
- Heading tape and hooks (advanced): tape runs the full flat width of every drop, with roughly 10 hooks per metre; eyelet headings use rings and buckram instead.
- Finished width per curtain (advanced): the flat fabric per curtain and the gathered width it closes to, so you can check the pair will meet in the middle with a little overlap. An odd number of drops means one width is split between the two curtains.
- Total for the pair (advanced): fabric, lining and an optional making-up charge per drop. UK curtain makers typically charge GBP 40 to GBP 70 per drop for lined pencil pleat, more for hand-sewn pinch pleat or interlining. Generous fullness in a cheaper fabric almost always looks richer than skimped fullness in an expensive one.