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Drapery Widths

Tuesday, April 02, 2019 | By: Kristen Stevenson

Let's talk about width measurements for your next custom drapery design!

We recommend starting with our video below "What is railroaded fabric?", so you can get a better understanding of how we work with most 54" wide drapery fabrics to make your custom panels!

FUNCTIONAL, TRAVERSING PANELS will move back and forth across your rod to cover your window.

In this case, we will typically make draperies to fit the width of your rod.

Functional, traversing panels, closed.

Functional Drapery Panel

Functional, traversing panels, opened stacked back.

The panel(s) will be made to fit the rod width specified

In contrast, DECORATIVE, STATIONARY PANELS will not move across your rod.

In this case, we DO NOT need the measurement of your rod to make your draperies.

Instead, stationary panels require the designer to specify the number of WIDTHS PER PANEL.

Nonfunctional, stationary grommeted panels. These are for decorative use only.

Decorative/Stationary Panels

Nonfunctional, stationary custom panels mounted on decorative medallions. These are for decorative use only.

Specify the number of widths preferred instead of the rod width

However...what exactly is a "fabric width" specification for your decorative drapery panels?

The term stems from the original FABRIC width that is used to make your panels, typically measuring 54" wide.

measuring pattern repeat on fabric.

1 width of fabric typically measures 54 inches.

Finised goblet pleated draperie panel.

When we make draperies, we pleat down the fabric, adding fullness.

For most one width pleated drapery panels, we will make with 5 pleats per width of 54" wide fabric.

For panels with a "half width" we will cut a 54" wide piece of fabric in half and seam this together with the full width.

The half width accommodates 2 additional pleats.

1 width of fabric pinch pleated drapery panel with decorative flat trim set in from edge.
1 1/2 width of fabric pinch pleated drapery panel.

Keep in mind the above pictures show THREE PRONG PLEATS. Different pleat styles are made with different fullness, and finish with different width coverages.

TWO PRONG PLEATS are made with 2x fullness. LESS fullness means that we use LESS fabric to make the pleats. This leaves more fabric for the drapery width.

1 1/2 widths of fabric top-tacked drapery panel.
1 1/2 widths of fabric pinch pleated drapery panel.

See how the above pictures show a 1.5 width THREE prong pleated drapery finishing with less width than the 1.5 width TWO prong pleated drapery.

In the column on the right hand side of the pleated draperies page below, you'll see the width coverage for different pleat styles specified.

Showing different pleat styles and showing which styles are good for decorative use only and which ones are good for traversing.

But the width coverage measurements above are NOT exact because every fabric and pleat style is different!

Also, keep in mind that these widths do include the projection measurement.

To recap... when specifying the width for your drapery order:

- Provide the ROD WIDTH for functional, traversing panels.

- Provide the NUMBER OF FABRIC WIDTHS preferred for decorative, stationary panels.

Explaining the pleated width of functioning panels.

Functional panels: drapery width = rod width

Explaing finished width of nufunctioning panels

Stationary panels will be made to the number of fabric widths specified.

We can't wait to get started on your next drapery order!

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