Décor etc.: Pleated Drapery

A drapery arrangement is often the most eye-catching aspect of a room - and the feature that gives the most scope for creativity.

Here is how a professional measurer determines yardage:

Specifications:
* 2.5 times fullness
* 3.00 times fullness for sheers
* 4.00 times fullness for non moving sheers
* 18" hems & headings
* Standard 3.5" overlap for traverse rod
* Standard 2" overlap for wood pole with rings
* Add 10% to finished width for drapery hanging from rings, for easing
* Specify pinch pleats, reverse pinch pleats, butterfly pleats, goblet pleats or cartridge pleats
* Goblets & cartridge pleats are only for standing panels

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Number of Widths: Face width x 2.5 + returns + overlap / fabric width

Cut Length: 1. Finished length + hems / fabric repeat (round up)
2. Number of repeats x repeat = cut length
Yardage: Cut length x number of widths / 36
Sheer railroaded: Face width x 3 + returns + overlap / 36

The chief ingredient in any successful window composition is imagination. To some extent, there is a repertoire of basic forms - a vocabulary of design ideas from which professional designers tend to draw inspiration. Often, the most successful designs are those where a traditional idea is injected with a touch of originality - perhaps in the proportions, or in the detailing, or in the fabric choice.

The following are a few examples of how PLEATED DRAPERY are executed by different designers: