Custom made curtains are one of the last things the internet hasn't flattened. A sofa is a sofa in any zip code, but a drape is sewn against one specific window: its width, its height, the crookedness it picked up in 1948, the radiator under the sill. That's why we still make ours the slow way, one order at a time, and why this page explains exactly what you're buying before you spend custom money.
What custom made actually means
The phrase gets stretched, so here's how we use it. Off-the-shelf panels come in fixed sizes (63, 84, 96 inches) at flat, skimpy fullness; if your window cooperates, fine. "Custom size" from big online retailers usually means a stock design cut to a different length in an overseas facility, better than nothing and still not sewn for your window. Custom made, the thing we do, means the panel starts as flat yardage and every decision (finished width, fullness, header, lining, hem weight) is made against your measurements. Nothing exists until you order it.
The difference shows in the hang. A drape sewn at 2x fullness with a proper buckram heading and weighted corners falls in even, rounded folds and returns to them every time it's drawn. A flat ready-made hangs like what it is. Once you've seen the two side by side, it's hard to unsee.
And a word of honesty the industry rarely offers: custom isn't for everyone. If you're renting for a year, if the window is a standard 36 by 60 in a room you're not attached to, or if the budget conversation starts and ends at the ready-made price point, buy the ready-made and enjoy it. Come back when you own the windows. Custom is for the rooms you'll still be standing in a decade from now.
How our workroom builds a panel
Fabric first. We work with mill-grade textiles from houses like Kravet, Schumacher, and Thibaut alongside our own line of linens, velvets, sheers, and blackout weaves, and we'll send swatches before you decide anything. Fabric arrives, gets inspected and relaxed, then cut with the pattern repeat matched across every seam. Panels are seamed, side-hemmed, and finished with a 4 inch double-fold bottom hem with corner weights, then the header is built: pleats sewn by hand count, grommets set, or ripple fold tape applied. Every finished panel is steamed and inspected hanging, not folded, because folded fabric hides sins.
You can see finished work in the gallery, all of it sewn in this workroom and photographed in clients' homes rather than a studio.
Measuring, without the fear
The reason people hesitate on custom is the fear of measuring wrong, so we built the process around catching mistakes before they cost anything. Our measuring guide walks you through rod length before fullness, makes you measure every window separately, and asks for the photos that catch what numbers miss. Then a human checks your numbers against those photos before a single cut. Most "wrong" measurements are one of five known mistakes, and between the guide and the review, they get caught on the way in.
How an order flows
Swatches first. Tell us what you're after and we'll send fabric samples to hold in your actual light; screens lie about texture and color, and afternoon sun lies differently than morning sun. Then measurements. Follow the guide, send the numbers and photos, and we'll sanity-check everything against the windows in the photos before a single cut. Then the quote. One number per window, itemized, with the timeline attached. Then sewing and shipping. Three to four weeks in the workroom, careful packing (rolled, not folded, so panels arrive press-ready), and hanging instructions written for a person with a drill and an afternoon.
The fabric library
Fabric is 80 percent of the decision and most of the price, so it gets its own section. Linen is the workroom's most-requested fiber and earns it: the slubby texture reads relaxed at sill height and surprisingly formal at floor length, it takes both bright and moody colors well, and a washed finish keeps it from feeling precious. It wrinkles, which is either charm or a dealbreaker; know which one you are. Velvet is the opposite argument, weight and depth and light absorbed instead of filtered. Cotton velvets hang crisper, viscose blends glow more; both want interlining if you're after the upholstered, old-hotel hang. Sheers do their best work layered behind drapes or alone on big glass, sewn at 2.5x to 3x fullness so the fabric reads as mist rather than mesh. Wools and blends drape beautifully, insulate honestly, and shrug off sun better than silk ever will. And patterns from the mills (florals, ikats, wide stripes, embroideries) turn a drape into the room's argument; they cost more because every seam must land on the same point in the repeat, and they're worth it when the rest of the room is quiet.
Whatever the fiber, the rule stands: swatches first, in your light, against your wall. We'll send them free, and we'd rather lose a week to swatches than sew you the wrong fabric quickly.
Linings, from none to blackout
Lining is the invisible decision that determines how the drape performs. Unlined keeps sheers sheer and linens luminous, and fades faster in hard sun. Standard lining (a cotton or poly sateen) adds body, protects the face fabric, and gives the street side of your windows a uniform, finished look. Blackout lining is the bedroom workhorse: a coated 3-pass layer sewn in, so the room goes dark while the face fabric stays soft and looks nothing like a hotel blackout panel. Thermal and interlined builds sandwich a flannel layer between face and lining, the traditional English method, and the difference in hang is visible from across the room; they're also genuinely useful insulation on single-pane glass. We'll recommend one based on the room's exposure, the fabric, and how you sleep, and we'll tell you when the cheaper option is honestly enough.
Headers, from tailored to relaxed
The header sets the personality of the whole treatment, and it's the one choice we recommend making from photos of real installs rather than thumbnails. We sew six: pinch pleat, tailored pleat, and inverted pleat for structured rooms, and ripple fold, grommet, and rod pocket for relaxed ones. Pinch pleat at 2x to 2.5x fullness is the classic for a reason; ripple fold on a track is the modern hotel look and glides better than anything else we make; grommet keeps a lower profile and a lower price. If you're torn, tell us the room and the fabric and we'll tell you what we'd hang in our own houses.
Any size, honestly any
Ready-made stops at 96 inches and calls everything past it a specialty. We don't. Wide is where custom stops being a luxury and becomes the only option: 12 foot sliders, 14 foot great-room walls, and the floor-to-ceiling glass that LA architects can't resist, seamed from widths of 54 inch fabric until the panel covers the span at full fullness. Extra-long is the same story. A 10 foot ceiling wants a 108 inch drape hung high; an 11 footer wants 120; double-height spaces run past 144, and all of them are ordinary work here, with the hem style (float, kiss, break, or puddle) sewn in rather than pinned up at your house.
Odd sizes matter as much as big ones. A 41 inch powder room window, a transom over a door, the not-quite-matching pair flanking a fireplace: stock sizes round these off to "close enough," and close enough is exactly what you notice every day afterward. Since every order starts from flat yardage, a strange dimension costs us nothing but attention. If you're unsure whether your window is "oversized," it probably just means one more seam to us.
Living with them
Custom drapes are surprisingly low-maintenance if you start right. Vacuum with the brush attachment every few weeks, top to bottom, and rotate which panel carries the tieback if you use one. Most lined drapes want dry cleaning only, and honestly want it rarely; over-cleaning wears fabric faster than dust does. Steam wrinkles out on the rod rather than ironing (a garment steamer is the one tool worth owning), and let a puddled hem get re-fluffed after vacuuming rather than re-pressed. Sun is the real enemy: lining, rotation, and an honest conversation about which exposure gets the precious fabric will do more for longevity than any care routine.
When the panels arrive, they've been finished hanging, steamed, and rolled onto tubes so they reach you press-ready. Hang them and give the folds two or three warm days to train; fabric has memory, and it learns the window faster than you'd expect. The box includes the hanging hardware layout, hook settings for pleated orders, and the workroom's phone number, because a two-minute call beats an afternoon of guessing.
How we compare, honestly
Three competitors do custom drapery well at national scale, and you should know how we differ before you spend with any of us.
| Dream Curtains | The Shade Store | Half Price Drapes | Barn & Willow | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where it's sewn | Our own Los Angeles workroom | Handcrafted in the US | Own overseas production | Partner workrooms; Belgian-woven linen |
| In-home measure | Free in LA + Ventura counties | Free near showrooms; fee outside | Not offered | Not offered |
| Installation | Free in LA + Ventura counties | Offered, paid | Not offered | Not offered |
| Measurement check | Human review of your numbers + photos before cutting | Self-serve tools; in-home measure near showrooms | Self-serve size guide | Online dimension finder |
| Who you talk to | The workroom itself, by phone | Showroom + support staff | Online support | Online support |
The pattern is simple: the big names are good at scale, and we're good at proximity. When the people quoting your windows are the people sewing for them, questions get answered in one phone call and edge cases stop being edge cases.
What three common orders look like
Every quote is built against real windows, but these three configurations come up weekly and show how the pieces fit together.
The bedroom pair. Two panels for a 72 inch window, rod at 96 inches, sewn at 2x fullness in a washed linen with blackout lining, pinch pleat header, float length. The lining does the sleep work; the linen keeps it from looking like a hotel blackout. This is our most-ordered build.
The great-room wall. Ripple fold drapery on a ceiling track across 14 feet of glass, in an open-weave sheer, floating a half inch off the floor. Sheer at 2.5x fullness turns a wall of glass into light without giving up the view. Width, not fabric grade, drives this quote: it's seamed from six widths of fabric.
The statement room. A cotton velvet pair, interlined for body, tailored pleat, with a 2 inch break at the floor. Interlining adds weight, cost, and the kind of hang photographs are taken of. This is the build where mill fabric (a Kravet or Schumacher velvet) earns its price.
Frequently asked questions
How much do custom made curtains cost?
The honest answer is that the fabric decides. A wide, floor-length pair in a mill-grade linen or velvet costs more than the same pair in a workhorse poly-blend, and lining, interlining, and hand-finished details each add their share. We quote every order against your exact windows before you commit, so you'll see the real number, not a configurator estimate that grows at checkout.
Are custom curtains worth it?
If a stock size genuinely fits your window, buy the stock size; we'll say that to your face. Custom earns its price when the window is wider, taller, or odder than the ready-made rack allows, when you want the panels sewn at real fullness instead of the flat 1.2x most retailers ship, or when the fabric itself is the point. A custom pair also hangs for a decade or more, which changes the per-year math against replacing ready-mades twice.
Why are custom curtains so expensive?
Yardage, mostly. A properly full pair of drapes contains two to two and a half times the rod width in fabric, plus 16 to 20 inches per cut for hems and headers, and patterned fabric adds more for matching at the seams. Then a sewist cuts, seams, weights, and presses each panel individually. You're paying for fabric quantity and labor hours that mass production simply doesn't spend, which is also exactly why the result hangs differently.
How long does a custom curtain order take?
Plan on three to four weeks in the workroom once fabric is confirmed, plus transit. Fabric availability is the variable to watch: patterns we stock move fastest, while a special-order mill fabric can add a week or two before sewing starts. We confirm the timeline with your quote and tell you promptly if anything moves it.
Where can I buy custom size blackout curtains?
Right here, in any dimension you need. True blackout is a system rather than a fabric: a blackout or 3-pass lining sewn behind your face fabric, a hem that reaches the floor, and coverage generous enough that light can't sneak around the edges. Tell us the room's job (a nursery, a shift worker's bedroom, a screening room) and we'll spec the lining and overlaps to match.
How do I choose between LA installation and nationwide shipping?
Geography chooses for you, mostly. Inside Los Angeles and Ventura counties, take the white glove track: we measure for free, sew, and install for free, and you never touch a tape or a ladder. Everywhere else, you measure with our guide, we sew the same way in the same workroom, and the finished panels ship to your door ready to hang. The sewing is identical; the only difference is who holds the tape and the drill.
Do you ship custom curtains internationally?
We ship anywhere in the US, and international is a conversation rather than a checkbox. Duties, fabric restrictions, and transit insurance vary enough by country that we quote those orders individually. Reach out with your location and dimensions and we'll tell you honestly whether it makes sense.
Can I supply my own fabric?
Yes. The industry calls it COM, customer's own material, and designers use it with us constantly. Send the yardage requirements to us before you buy the fabric, because fullness, repeats, and hems consume more than most first-timers expect. We'll confirm the fabric is suitable for drapery weight and drape before we cut, since not every beautiful textile wants to hang in folds.
Ready when you are
Start with swatches or start with a conversation; both are free and neither commits you to anything. And if you're within driving distance of the workroom, let us do the measuring too.