Pleating Basics

Pleated draperies have been around for ages and are a standard in the window covering industry. They are practical, attractive, and can help reduce utility bills. Look around and you will come to realize that they are the most common window treatment style around.

The majority of pleated draperies are fabricated by professional workrooms and small home based window treatment fabricators. Their primary job is to assemble the wide range of designer fabrics in such a way that the fabric not only looks beautiful, but also expands to cover their customer's window opening. There is a lot of hard work involved to do the job right.

The following items must be considered when fabricating pleated drapery:

• The window size including width, height, wall space above and wall space below.
• The rod size including how far beyond each side of the window should the rod project.
• The fullness of the window treatment.
• The size of the top and bottom hems.
• The type of linings that are suitable for the fabric.
• The size of each space and pleat.
• How deep should the header be? 4 inches, 8 inches or more?
• How far should the rod project off of the wall?
• How high off the floor should you mount the rod?
• Should the curtains brush the floor, puddle or float above the floor?
• Will you have to hand sew the fabric or can you machine sew it?
• Does the fabric require special handling like many silk fabrics do?
• Will you be able to machine tack the pleats or will you need to do this by hand?
• How many widths of fabric will be needed to make your panel or your pair?

After all of the above has been taken into consideration, and before the drapery panels can be fabricated, the window treatment fabricator must perform a series of complicated calculations. The goal here is to take the allotted fabric and figure out how to best pleat it so that when it is installed on the rod or track it has consistent spaces and pleats that cover the entire rod when drawn closed. A second goal, and one that is equally important, is to be certain that all seams are hidden at or near the edge of a pleat or space. You cannot call it custom drapery if your seams are running down the middle of a pleat or space.

The above challenges, when properly addressed, will result in custom drapery that will bring happiness and joy to their owners, and great pride and profit to their fabricators.

So the next time you run into a customer who tells you that making drapery is easy and that you should reduce your price, sit them down and show them what's involved. After they hear what you have to say, they just might have a little more appreciation for what you do.

As for the folks here at www.ezpleating.com, we would like to help make your job a little easier - and help you make a little extra money too. We know that there are three kinds of fabricators out there: those that can handle the calculations, those that can handle the calculations but don't want to, and those that can't handle the calculations. Regardless of which one you are, The EZ Pleating System™ can help you plan, mark and pleat your drapery in a fraction of the time that it takes using any another system!

Give it a try. Once you use our system you'll never pleat drapery without it. Time is money! Don't waste another minute figuring pleats and spaces by hand. Click to learn more.