of curtains and ethics: can I make curtains cheaper than I can (ethically) buy them? ^should^ I?

[hatwoman]

We're (possibly) moving into rented accommodation with horrendous curtains. we just need something tolerable for a year or two. Ikea curtains (just looked to give me an idea) cost £20-£30 - but I haven't looked into their sourcing. I'm not convinced I could make them much cheaper. There's the slight issue that I've never made curtains before - but I have the machine and we don't need fancy pleats - how hard can it be? . On the ethical side, I've no idea how to source fabric ethically... also it's a largeish house - could involve many an evening...what do you reckon? I was going to type "What's the "right" thing to do?" but you'll tell me that the truly "right" thing to do would be live with the god awful chintz...

i have no idea what is the right thing to do ethically BUT we bought all our curtains from ikea and there is no way i could've made them cheaper in such nice/thick fabric.

you could try charity shops? at least you'd be recycling them.

Charity shops, costs 5-20 quid. Get them altered if necessary (costs a lot more than purchase price). Even with alterations, works out cheaper than custom made (ime), but with alternations probably not as cheap as Ikea.

and here's me thinking someone was going to say running up curtains was a piece of piss.... As I suspected making my own - not as cheap as Ikea. we don;t need thick ones downstairs but possibly in the bedrooms. perhaps charity shop and altering them myself would be an option. I wouldn;t be fussy about width so possibly the only altering would be length...

google curtain exchange

running up curtains is a piece of piss

If you cn sew straight an dyou just want simple unlioned ones - which the IKEA ones will be at that price. Lined ones are harder to do, BUT they are no that hard - imagine makeing a bag and then turning inside out is the easiest way. look here for good cheap lined curtains. A colleague has these in red and they look AMAZING

Yes, making curtains is hard work especially if you have full length ones and need to line or interline, match patterns etc. Your knees get wrecked crawling around on the floor pinning the pieces together, then you have to feed a ton weight through your sewing machine which was probably not designed for anything more than delicate dress making. I would buy from Ikea - most curtains in charity shops are 1980s twee chintzy designs.

making curtains is a peice of piss!

Even with lining it's relatively straightforward, sew both peices together back to back, turn inside out, sew tape to top, hem, and bingo you've got a curtain.

The reality though, is that something goes wrong, the sewing machine gets jammed, it all gets a bit fiddly...so if you can get them made I'd recommend that.

I'm in rented accom and in the sititng room I have two double duvet covers with tape sewn at the top in white cotton fabric for the french doors. They do the job fine and the duvet covers where bogof at argos! They fit perfectly too. It's worth investigating this.

Lilymaid - that's why I never other pinning anything! Just feed the two bits of material in together