Dull but hopefully quick question about curtains?

[champagnesupernova]

I want to make/get made (not sure how brave I'm feeling) some curtains to hang by a frigging freezing draughty exterior door for the winter months only and it will need to be thermally lined so quite heavy - I am thinking a duvet

What kind of pleat is best?!

TIA and sorry it's so dull

You need heavy fabric with a thermal lining and inter-lining. You will have to get it made for you, as a domestic sewing machine wouldn't stand a chance with those thicknesses at the corner seams.

ooh thanks lunar - good to know that bit
But what about pleats - need to know how much fabric to buy.

Do you have a branch of Dunelm nearby? Give the ladies in there your measurements and they work it all out for you, suggesting different style pleats etc.

You would ideally need to use Pinch Pleats for the heading of this thick curtain. Because its to cover a door it proably needs to draw back a lot for restricted space.

Pinch pleats have hooks behind each pleat when up on the track so if you are using, say 2 curtain widths, you would only have 8 or 9 hooks. Plus they always look a whole lot nicer than any other heading. If you use thermal lining and a good quality interlining you will notice the difference.

I would suggest not using a curtain pole as this may hold the curtains away from the door and let the cold through the sides and top. A good quality track will have your heavy curtain swish-ing along nicely.

I have a large open plan lounge and have this type of curtain at the bottom of the stairs and it really does the job.

ps. In the past, when dealing with older ladies, I have suggested that if they have any of those lovely all wool blankets they could be put to use and I have fitted quite a few into the middle of ready made curtains.
I machine sew a 1" tape to the top of the blanket then open up the bottom line of sewing on the heading tape. Machine sew it with the blanket tape tucked inbetween the other two layers. I use an industrial machine but if you take it slow it may be sewn on a domestic.

Thanks size6feet - very helpful about pleating -
I am planning on leaving the curtain closed for a lot of the time - there isn't anywhere to draw the curtain away to. It's a 1.5 width (ish) door which has two doors - you can open just one side but you can't really get through as it's not v wide. - Hence so draughty. it also has leaded glass from sort of letterbox height upwards.
So I am thinking that during the winter, we just leave it closed and then remove the curtain for the summer.