Nothing upgrades the ambience of a room like beautifully draped window treatments. But what to do when you can’t get your drapery pleats to lay properly?
Don’t worry, friends—we’re here to help. Barn & Willow drapes are engineered with quality fabrics and custom linings so that they naturally hang nicely. However, if you’re hoping to train your drapery pleats to lay a certain way, we gathered a handful of ways to make it happen.
Image courtesy of Barn & Willow
Move Full Steam Ahead
A little steam can go a long way when training your drapery pleats to lay properly. Start by hanging your drapes inside-out, so that the liner is facing you. Arrange the pleats neatly in folds and then use a steamer (or an iron that produces steam) to apply continuous steam to the lining to help set the folds. Leave your drapes hanging for a few days and then re-fold the pleats and steam the other side for the best results.
Sew Away
You can sew the lining and drapes together with long looping stitches along the top of the bottom hem (between the lining and the fabric) to help make your drapery pleats lay properly. Just hang your drapes inside-out (with the lining facing you) and arrange the folds. Make several small stitches in the top of the lining hem and a few more on the next fold, leaving just enough thread between the two folds to allow them to hang straight. Repeat across the width of the drapes, turn them right-side out and voila: you’ve got perfectly folded drape pleats for days.
Pick Up Some Plastic Pleat Clips
If you aren’t already hip to pleat control clips, then now’s the time to smarten up. Shaped like large bobby bins, plastic pleat clips attach to the back of your drapes at the bottom of the hem to help train the pleats to stay in place without leaving any damage behind. No plastic clips on hand? No problem. Shirt clips—aka the ones that hold packaged shirts together—work just the same. Just remember to remove whichever type of clips you use once you score the folded look you’re after.
Gain Weight
When all else fails, you can always add a little weight to the hems of your drapes to help them hang properly. Simply slide some pennies or traditional lead weights into the corners and along the bottom edge of your curtain panels to weigh down the folds in your drapes so that they stay in place.
