Window Treatments Simplified Session 2: How to Take Accurate Measurements

Taking accurate measurements is absolutely critical to your success. It is the foundation upon which your window treatments are built. Your window treatments will only be as good as your measurements. So I want to give you a few tips that the pros use when they're creating window treatments. The first thing is measure each and every window.

I don't care if they're side by side and they look the same size. You want to measure each window because there can be variances. Even in new construction, a home can be off, the windows can be off. Typically, they can be off half an inch, maybe even an inch, believe it or not. So you want to measure each window.

Now, if you're doing one window treatment over several windows, like sometimes you might put a valance or a cornice over a set of three windows, then you would want to measure that as a unit and treat it as one window. Excuse me, that would be the exception to the rule. when you're measuring, always, always, always, I can't stress this enough, use a metal tape. As you can tell, this one's gotten a lot of use. It's well loved; it's well used.

But the measurements will be in sixteenths of an inch. And the good thing is the tape is rigid. So if you try and do it with a cloth tape measure, you can have slack in it, and your measurements won't be accurate. You want to use the metal tape. The other thing is it's best if two people do the measuring, not only to double check measurements.

You always want to measure at least twice every measurement before you cut once. But with two people, you can get a more accurate measurement because one person is holding it exactly where you want it. Particularly if you have larger windows than what you can reach across like this. I would say anything more than about a 36-inch window, 42 at the max. That's 42.

You're probably gonna want to have somebody helping you measure it. The measurements that you're going to take, I'm going to refer here to the Sunset "Curtains, Draperies & Shades" book. And it has a good drawing here that I find is a wonderful reference when you are putting together your window measurements. So I went ahead, and since this is the reference that I'm using and I've cited it, I did make a copy to enlarge it. So you can see it a little bit easier on the video.

These are the basic measurements that you want to take each and every time. First, you're going to want to measure the width of your window. And then you're going to want to measure the length. And this is from inside the window. So the actual inside the casing is what you're measuring.

Then if your project is going to extend to either side of the window, you want to measure from the inside of the window to however far out you want it to extend, and you want to measure it on both sides. You can technically measure from point to point, but I always like to have all of my actual measurements. Part of it is because if the window next to it is off slightly, I can see exactly where the measurements are off and where I might need to make some adjustments. It also may determine if the windows are off too much if I want to go to the inside of the window. If it's off too much, it may look funny.

It may be noticeable. So then I may want to camouflage by going to the outside of the window and adjusting the two so they look the same. Believe it or not, if your measurement is off by let's say about even 1/4 of an inch, but definitely if it's off by 1/2 an inch, you will notice it as you stand there and look at the window. You will say, "Something doesn't look right." And what it is is that this window treatment is smaller than this one. They're a different size.

So that's why you want to take these measurements, measure each window and be accurate. And the same thing with the length. You have your height above the window, again taken from the inside of the casing up. And it depends on what kind of window treatment you have. But typically, if when you hang your draperies, you're typically coming five inches above the window, and that's so it hides the rod pocket and the header from the outside looking in.

You really need to consider how are your draperies and curtains and valances, how is the window treatment going to look from the outside of your house as people walk up and see those windows. You don't want to see all of these construction details. So that's why we typically hang a minimum of five inches above a window. You may be going all the way the ceiling. Sometimes we go to the ceiling to give that dramatic up effect with either curtains or even a valance.

It's a good trick if you have a small window to mount your valance, especially, well above the window, because your eye is fooled into thinking it's a much taller window. Typically, we like to work in a rule of thirds, where at least 2/3 of the window is showing and only 1/3 of it might have window treatment. The rule of thirds is very pleasing to the eye. But again, look at your window, look at proportions, and play with it and realize that yes, you can keep going up. You can fudge, but that's an important measurement.

Likewise, how far beneath the window is it going to hang? Traditionally and typically what looks best is to either have your drapery go all the way to the floor. Let it stop maybe an inch below the floor so that you can get the vacuum under. And it's not getting caught up in the vacuum. Although some people do like to puddle their draperies.

This was a very popular, very elegant look, especially in the '90s. We still see it occasionally, not as much these days. But it always was a pain to have to pick up the drapery and vacuum underneath it, and then try and get those puddles back so that they looked gorgeous again. So what I tell people is allow about an inch above your floor for vacuuming or cleaning if it's wood floor. You also, if they're shorter windows like this, especially if it's behind a couch, you might only want to come just beneath the window sill.

In that case, I would come down probably again about five inches so that the hem is hidden from the outside. An exception to that would be some people like to stop so that the curtain actually rests on your window ledge. If you have the type of window where there is a ledge at the bottom, and it comes out with the little ears, these are what we call ears on the side, it typically will project out about an extra inch to an inch and a half past the edge of the window. So it's looking like this. And sometimes people like that hem to rest right on the window ledge.

That's another option. Again, you will see your hem from the outside. It may be if you've got your windows open, and it's stacking up into this extension space, that may not be important, because you're only closing at night, and nobody's going to see the hem anyway. So all of these are considerations as you measure. So you're going to want to take a minimum of two measurements if you're doing to the inside.

And actually, I'm going to amend that and say if you're going to the inside, I want you to measure six places. I want you to measure slightly down from the top, maybe six inches. I want you to measure the center, and I want you to measure the bottom. Because this window may not be perfectly plumb or square. And then I want you to do the same thing on the horizontal, or rather on the vertical.

We're going to measure in the center. And then to either side. Because we want to make sure that our window treatment fits in there nice and square and plumb and level and all those nice contractor terms so that you have a perfectly fitting, especially shade. It's not quite as critical on a valance, but on a pull-up shade or a Roman shade, that fabric needs to fit in there like a glove and look perfect. So I tell people, take three measurements, average them, or go by the largest one.

Or as you cut your fabric, if you've noticed that it's a little bit off, you may want to trim to that measurement where maybe I'm say 30 inches here and I'm 30 1/2 down here. Well, I may just trim my fabric so it's slightly angled. The eye will not see it. What the eye will see is if you have your window that's out and your curtain or your shade is square, it's going to notice that gap of air. So in that case, like I said, take three measurements.

You may also need to adjust your hemline slightly. It may not be exactly that 30, 40, 50 inch straight across. It may be off 1/2 an inch. So you will need to adjust your rectangle slightly. With that in mind, I want you to see how all these measurements play out for calculating your yardage.

Now, remember we've got all of our measurements, and we also need to have some add-ons, as I call them. You're going to need to make sure you put in enough fabric for the header. And the header is, while we've got the length of your drapery here that we've measured, which would be just the straight edge, the header is the portion that is turned back. So we need to allow for that. So we may be adding on five, six, seven inches to allow for the header and the rod pocket.

So we need to add those. We also need to add to the length of the curtain, the hem, and if you're doing the doubled-over hem, that could be six inches that you need to add on so that it's folded twice, or a minimum of that 3 1/4, 1/4 of an inch to fold back, and 3 inches that has been folded up to make the hem. You also need to add to your side measurements in three inches on each side. So that's an extra six inches for your side seams. And you'll see how that comes into play when we do our bonus project.

So keeping that in mind, let's talk yardage calculation. Here's the hard part. This is where we have the math. So once you've taken your accurate measurements, the first thing you need to do is figure the number of widths of fabric. I know that sounds awkward.

Basically, if I have my window, and it's, let's say, 60 inches wide, and my fabric only comes in 45 or 54 inches wide, one piece isn't going to do it. I've got to seam panels of fabric or sections of fabric together, lengths of fabric together, to make my panel. So that's what we're trying to calculate. How many strips or lengths of fabric do I need? So the first thing you're going to do is you're going to take your left extension, your width of your window, and your right extension.

And that is the finished width. The finished width would be what you see when that curtain hangs up edge to edge. That's my finished width, right? Now, I'm going to put a caveat on that, as you can see, and if you are not having it extend out, it may be that all you need to do. Or rather, if it's extending past, and you're using a pole rod, you can substitute the length of the pole for this measurement right here.

And that would be the finished width that you have to have, 'cause you can't go any further than what the pole is. Another measurement that we may need to add in in addition to the hem or the header and the rod pocket and the hems are if you have a rod that's offset from the window, if it's that extended rod where you have the return on the sides. You would also need to add those in to make sure you have enough width. Then we're going to take our finished width that we just calculated here. And we're going to multiply it times the amount of fullness that we want.

Typically, you want two to three times the width of the finished width for gathering or shirring on a rod. What determines that is, number one, the thickness of the fabric. If it's a really thick fabric, you don't want it crunched up. You want to have a little breathing room in there. If it's shirr fabric, it's beautiful.

If there's lots of fullness in there to get those beautiful ruffles hanging down, or shirring, if you will. So that's the number one thing that will determine it. Number two is your own personal preference. How full do you want it to be? Two times is the absolute minimum you're going to want to go.

If you go less than two, it's almost like why bother. 2 1/2 is a nice measurement for a thick fabric. And if you're going thin, I recommend three. So that would be the number that you put in for your fullness. So your finished width times the fullness.

After you get that, you're going to add in that six inches for the side hems, three on each side. And that would be the total width of fabric that you require for cutting. That is the cutting width as opposed to the finished width. So now that I've got my total width required, now I'm going to divide it by the actual usable width of the fabric. And when I say usable, for instance, if you're buying fabric on a bolt, it usually comes at 44 to 45 inches wide, but you have selvages, and that is unusable fabric.

And that's that white strip on the edge of fabric where a lot of information is printed. It's woven more tightly than the rest of the fabric. So if you leave it on, it is going to pull and distort. You need to take that off. Typically, we say for a 45 inch width the fabric on the bolt, 40 inches of it is usable, especially if you decide to pre-shrink it.

And that's a different topic for later. But I tell people go with 40 inches. With 54-inch decorator fabric, it depends on how close to the selvage edge the fabric is printed, because when you try and match your pattern, you may need to go all the way to the selvage. And you may not be able to trim that selvage off. You may end up just clipping it to add a little easement in there.

So again, it depends on what is the usable width of the fabric. Just for safety's sake, I would say if you're 54, probably go with 50 to 52 inches of usable fabric, just for calculation's sake. Sometimes you can find 60-inch-wide fabric. So it all depends. So that will give you the number of widths that you need.

How many panels do I need to buy? And then that will help you determine how much fabric you need. So now to determine the length of each of those widths, you're going to take the distance above the window plus the length of the window plus any distance below the window. And that is your finished length. You're gonna take the finished length, and you're going to add in that header and rod pocket.

Remember, the part that folded back over that's behind. And then you also have to add in for the hem. So you would be either 3 1/4 if you're having a single hem. If you're doubling the hem, you're going to want to make that six inches. And then I tell everybody to add in an extra inch, and that's so that you have a little extra at the top that you can trim and square off.

Because sometimes as we sew, fabric moves, it's not rigid like wood is, it can shift. It can shrink a little as we're pressing it. It just gives me a little bit of insurance before I do the final step where I can trim it and square everything up. So you want that extra inch of trimming allowance. That would be the cut length of your fabric.

Each width of fabric, each length would be cut to this measurement. So now you're going to take that cut length. You're going to multiply it by the number of widths that you need. Let's say you needed two widths per window, and you have three windows, then you're going to be needing six wince, widths times the cut length of your fabric. And that gives you the amount of fabric you need in inches.

Then you're going to take that number of inches and divide it by 36 for the total yards needed. This is what you need to take with you, that total yards needed to the store. Because when you get to the store and pick your fabric, you may actually need to add in some extra fabric for the pattern repeat. And I'm gonna talk about that in our next segment.