We're a bit old-fashioned in that we have net curtains at our front windows. We've had blinds before, but they just collect dust. The nets we had were quite old and were a bit grey after several washings over the years, so we decided to have new ones. My wife suggested John Lewis, I said, "I should cocoa!" I found all sorts of daft prices on eBay, particularly for "made to measure." So I tried Googling instead. I found a firm in Norfolk who would also make them to measure. My wife was doubtful about the price, as it seemed ridiculously cheap compared to some we'd seen. Anyway, as I was paying for them, I went ahead and ordered them. After several weeks they arrived today. So after a thorough clean of the frames and windows, I put the front room ones up today. I chose a deep hem and they are beautifully finished. The size is 300cms X 145cms. The price? post free, £32.78. The ones for the front bedroom we had made full length, 300cms X 210cms, £47.18 I'd been quoted four times that price! I'll put those up tomorrow. I don't know whether these were made by some sophisticated computer controlled machine, or little girls in China, but either way we're well pleased! On the subject of curtains, I may have mentioned this before. With bay windows, any sort of track is a problem, if you want to draw the curtains off the windows, to let in more light. We have Swish track. It can handle the sweep of a bay window without any problems, but it won't normally turn corners. If you try to bend Swish track too much, it will just buckle. The trick is to use a hot air gun, slowly heat the track and carefully bend it, all the time running a glider along the groove to make sure you don't make the bend too acute. You don't have to get it that hot, it would be possible to melt it if you aren't too careful. Once bent it will retain its new position. On the left it has to turn outwards by about 30 degrees and then turn inwards by about 70 degrees. On the right, just one bend of 90 degrees. We can't draw the curtains completely off the window on that side, as there's only a few inches of wall and a big wall unit and a wall speaker (the top of which you can just see) would be in the way if I'd turned it another 90 degrees, which would otherwise have been possible.
Second curtain is up. Another example of the tight bends you can achieve with Swish curtain track using a hot air gun.
