Making own pencil pleat curtains - advice on widths pls

[silverswan]

First attempt at making own curtains - thin fabric and unlined as will have blackout roller blind also. Have bought 2 sets of curtain pairs (essentially just hemmed panels, have cut out the hidden tabs), planning to stitch each pair together and attach pencil pleat heading tape.

Question is - will the tape when pulled tight only reduce width by one half maximum, even if thin fabric? When stitched together, each panel is 290cm and window width is only 230cm total (bit less for curtain pole length as recessed window) so each curtain should end up about 115cm. Or do I have to chop piece off each panel and rehem the side?

Thanks very much

If you are using a thin material without lining the tape can be pulled tighter than if you had the usual thickness of material plus lining. No need at all to chop anything off the panel in my opinion.

Excellent news, thankyou Lilymaid! It was all starting to look a bit like hard work