Curtain Cost Calculator

What custom curtains cost to make

A curtain price is built from five lines: face fabric, lining, sewing labor, hardware, and installation. Fabric gets the attention, but on lined, professionally made drapes the sewing is usually the largest single line. Ready-made panels skip most of that, which is why they cost less and fit worse: they come in a few fixed sizes, at a fixed fullness, in whatever fabric the factory chose.

The worked example on this page is a pair of 48-inch-wide windows dressed in 84-inch drapes at 2x fullness, in $18.00-a-yard fabric with blackout lining, sewn by a workroom at $110.00 per panel, hung on $45.00 rods and installed professionally. It comes to $1,010.00, or $505.00 per window. The same windows in fabric you cut and sew yourself, unlined, on basic rods, come to $192.00. Most real projects land between those two numbers.

Neither figure is wrong. They are different products: one is window furniture that will hang straight for a decade, the other is a quick cover for glass. Decide which one you are buying before you compare prices.

How many yards of fabric a window needs

Yardage comes from width, not length, in almost every room. The steps:

1. Multiply the window width by the fullness ratio. A 48-inch window at 2x needs 48 x 2 = 96 inches of fabric width across the rod.

2. Divide by the usable width of the fabric. Standard decorator fabric is 54 inches wide, and about an inch of that disappears into the side seams, so the usable width is 53 inches. 96 / 53 = 1.8 widths, which rounds up to 2 panels per window.

3. Add sewing allowance to the length. The raw cut for each panel is the finished length plus 12 inches: 8 inches for a 4-inch double-turned bottom hem and 4 inches for the top header. For 84-inch drapes that is 84 + 12 = 96 inches per panel.

4. Convert to yards and round up to the eighth. Fabric stores cut in eighth-yard steps. 96 inches is 96 / 36 = 2.67 yards, which rounds to 2.75 yards per panel.

Two windows at two panels each is 4 panels, and 4 x 2.75 = 11 yards. At $18.00 a yard the face fabric is $198.00. The table shows how the fullness choice changes the count for the same window.

Pattern repeats and other ways yardage grows

A printed or woven pattern repeats every so many inches, and each panel has to be cut so the pattern lands in the same place at the top. That means each cut is rounded up to a whole number of repeats, and the leftover strip between cuts is waste.

Take the 96-inch cut from the example and a 10-inch repeat. 96 / 10 = 9.6 repeats, so each panel is cut at 10 repeats, or 100 inches. Four panels need 400 inches, which is 11.11 yards before eighth-yard rounding, and the calculator reports $207.00 of fabric instead of $198.00: about half a yard more, or $9.00 at $18.00 a yard. A 27-inch floral repeat is harder: each cut rounds to the next multiple of 27, and large repeats on narrow fabric can add a full yard to a window.

Railroaded fabric, printed so the pattern runs along the roll instead of across it, changes the arithmetic completely: the roll width becomes your cut length and the roll length becomes your width. Some fabrics can only be railroaded, so check before you price, because a railroaded cut of a 54-inch fabric cannot make an 84-inch panel in one piece.

Buy the yardage the calculator reports and add nothing for luck on solid fabrics. For the first panel of a tricky pattern, cut a paper template at the repeat height before you touch the cloth.

Lining and blackout options

Lining is a second layer of fabric behind the face fabric, sewn to the same cut length. It stops sunlight from fading the face fabric, hides silhouettes at night, and adds body so the folds hang instead of flopping. Lining yardage equals face-fabric yardage, so it is priced on the same 11 yards in the example.

Blackout lining adds an acrylic or foam coating that blocks nearly all light. It is the standard choice for bedrooms and shift workers, and it is the difference between a dim room and a dark one. Thermal linings add a reflective layer that trims heat loss in winter; the Department of Energy's window attachment research covers how much of a difference attachments make, and the numbers there favor shades and sealed drapes over loose panels.

Interlining is a third layer sandwiched between face and lining. It is what makes drapes hang like the ones in hotel lobbies, and it is the main reason custom window treatments quote high: the fabric bill triples in layers before anyone sews a hem.

Sewing labor: yourself, a seamstress, or a workroom

Labor is quoted per panel, and a panel is one width of fabric with a finished top, hem, and sides. Two windows at two panels each is 4 panels, so a $110.00 per panel rate adds $440.00. That is not padding. Pleating, weighting, and hanging a panel straight takes real bench time, and a workroom also presses, measures, and often installs.

If you sew, start with a rod-pocket or grommet header on solid fabric and an unlined panel. Both hide small errors, and neither needs the precise folding that pinch pleats demand. Save pleats for a second project, after you have hemmed a panel that hangs square.

When you hire, ask whether the quote includes pattern matching, weights in the hem, and delivery. Those three items are where quotes quietly diverge, and they are the difference between a panel that hangs and a panel that dresses.

Rods, rings, and installation

The rod should reach 4 to 6 inches past the window frame on each side, so the open panels sit on wall, not glass. For a 48-inch window that means a rod of roughly 48 + 10 = 58 inches, which rounds up to a 60-inch rod. Rods in the 48 to 84 inch range commonly run $25 to $60 in steel and aluminum, and $80 to $200 and up in wood or brass with rings. The example carries $45.00 per window.

Hardware adds up in small parts: a bracket set, finials, and for pleated drapes, rings with clips or pin hooks. Buy brackets rated for the weight; a lined, interlined 84-inch panel can weigh several pounds, and a sagging bracket undoes good sewing.

Installation is a real line for tall or wide windows. A pro charges roughly $50 to $100 per window to mount the rod level, steam the panels, and dress the folds, and that step is what makes expensive fabric look expensive. The example books $75.00 per window, $150.00 for the pair. If you own a drill and a level, this is the easiest line to cut yourself.

A full worked estimate for two windows

Here is the default example, line by line, with the arithmetic the calculator performs.

That is $505.00 per window and $252.50 per finished panel. Ready-made 84-inch panels in a mid-range store line commonly sell for $40 to $120 a pair, so the DIY unlined version at $192.00 for both windows sits in that world, while the lined workroom version does not. The workroom product is not the same product; it is closer to upholstered furniture than to a bedsheet.

Change one assumption at a time when you estimate. Dropping fullness from 3x to 2x removes a panel per window and about a third of the fabric line; that is the biggest single lever most rooms have.

Do curtains pay for themselves in energy savings?

Partly, and honestly. Windows are the weakest thermal point in most walls, and the Department of Energy reports that insulated cellular shades can trim about 10 percent of heating energy and about 13 percent of cooling energy when used well. Conventional loose-hung draperies do far less: Cornell Cooperative Extension's tests put unsealed drapes at no more than about 10 percent of heat-loss reduction, while drapes that are lined and sealed close to the wall at all four edges reach roughly 25 percent.

What that means for cost is that lining is the energy line, not fabric weight. A $12.00-a-yard blackout lining on 11 yards adds $132.00 and improves both the light control and the thermal performance of the panel. Mounting the rod close to the wall and letting panels overlap in the middle closes the convection path that leaks heat.

Treat energy savings as a bonus on top of light control and looks, not a payback schedule. In a cold climate with old single-pane windows the numbers can be meaningful; behind a modern double-pane window they are small. The DOE window attachments research and Cornell's window treatment guide both publish the underlying tests if you want to run your own payback math.