1994 30' Excella curtains-- purchase?

[Brian Hobin]

Hello, the original curtains need replacement. Any suggestions if used or new ones are available.
Regards
Brian

[cwf]

Here is one link from a quick search..

Silverthreadsinteriors.com

[blkmagikca]

Has anyone sewn their own drapes? I don't profess to be any kind of expert on this, but an old friend guided me to making quilted fitted mattress covers and fitted sheets for my AS. I'm considering DIY curtains (pinch pleated top and bottom like the originals), again with the guidance of a friend.

[07007]

We have a 2000 30' excella that we are tearing apart. The curtains have been washed and came out good. The tracks have been removed. We would like to sell the curtains which would be ez to ship, I think the tracks are too big and costly to ship. If interested e-mail boleary844@yahoo.com and see what we can do. I'd have to pack them up and take to UPS to find out the shipping cost, but I'll wait for your interest.

[blkmagikca]

Originally Posted by 07007

We have a 2000 30' excella that we are tearing apart. The curtains have been washed and came out good. The tracks have been removed. We would like to sell the curtains which would be ez to ship, I think the tracks are too big and costly to ship. If interested e-mail boleary844@yahoo.com and see what we can do. I'd have to pack them up and take to UPS to find out the shipping cost, but I'll wait for your interest.

Thanks for the offer. Your curtains would not necessarily fit in my '87 Excella 32-ft. as my AS is a narrow body one and the layout is more than likely different.

I have decided to sew my own, with some guidance from a friend who was in the drapery business for many years. He still has rolls of fabric, and I'm leaning towards making them out of "Tergal" at 3-1/2 times thickness. They won't be lined or blackout type (I'm going to replace the blinds, likely with day-night shades). I'm also considering putting some aluminum U-channel up in the wood valences in the front part of the AS with strip led-lighting as the front ceiling light had been removed by the PO when he installed a Fantastic fan.

My wife can't sew worth a darn, but I've learned how to use a sewing machine and have already made fitted quilted mattress covers for the twin beds. It's amazing what you can learn to do when the need arises.

[cwf]

Sources for quality fabrics are key.... as well as using proper thread!!!! have fun... considering same effort on our 34' Wiiiide body.

[Skater]

Originally Posted by blkmagikca

I have decided to sew my own, with some guidance from a friend who was in the drapery business for many years. He still has rolls of fabric, and I'm leaning towards making them out of "Tergal" at 3-1/2 times thickness. They won't be lined or blackout type (I'm going to replace the blinds, likely with day-night shades). I'm also considering putting some aluminum U-channel up in the wood valences in the front part of the AS with strip led-lighting as the front ceiling light had been removed by the PO when he installed a Fantastic fan.

My wife can't sew worth a darn, but I've learned how to use a sewing machine and have already made fitted quilted mattress covers for the twin beds. It's amazing what you can learn to do when the need arises.

My mother sewed our curtains for us, but we had to put on the plastic track clips ourselves. My wife had a miserable time with her standard sewing machine with it, in part (I think) because we used a fairly heavy curtain fabric and black out fabric, and the needle has to go through several layers of fabric at that point. Be sure to use a good sewing machine if you intend to make your own curtains. My mother had to pull out her old tank of a sewing machine; her normal day-to-day machine wouldn't handle it.

[blkmagikca]

Thanks Skater.

My sewing machine is an old, but small machine - an Elna Lotus. It did an admiral job of sewing the quilted mattress covers, including going through multiple layers with heavy elastics. I'm not planning on using heavy fabric for the curtains - no black-out and no liner, just "Tergal", a polyester sheer - see Home French Tergal Sheers Window Curtains to get an idea of the fabric. My retired drapery buddy has several bolts of it left and I'm just going to pick out what I like. I figure that white sheer tergal 3-1/2 time width with give fullness to the curtains and provide light as well. With the current venetian blinds, I can get the darkening. When I am in JC on Dec 1st for my maintenance service, I'll pick up several packages of slides to sew on the new curtains.

When I get them done (which will be sometime in December, hopefully) once I get to AZ for the winter, I'll post photos of the finished product.

[Skater]

Originally Posted by blkmagikca

Thanks Skater.

My sewing machine is an old, but small machine - an Elna Lotus. It did an admiral job of sewing the quilted mattress covers, including going through multiple layers with heavy elastics. I'm not planning on using heavy fabric for the curtains - no black-out and no liner, just "Tergal", a polyester sheer - see Home French Tergal Sheers Window Curtains to get an idea of the fabric. My retired drapery buddy has several bolts of it left and I'm just going to pick out what I like. I figure that white sheer tergal 3-1/2 time width with give fullness to the curtains and provide light as well. With the current venetian blinds, I can get the darkening. When I am in JC on Dec 1st for my maintenance service, I'll pick up several packages of slides to sew on the new curtains.

When I get them done (which will be sometime in December, hopefully) once I get to AZ for the winter, I'll post photos of the finished product.

Sounds good. Vintage Trailer Supply has the slides much cheaper. Also, if you have old ones, don't be afraid to reuse them. We bought one pack from VTS so that we could replace curtains immediately, rather than pulling and sewing the slides on and rehanging, and to give ourselves a few spares in case of breakage (which never happened). We bought new "stretchy" stuff from Jo-Ann fabric.

I think what threw me in the earlier post was the "3 and a half times thickness" comment. It sounded like thick material, but I guess it's not.

Note the blinds don't cover the sides of the windows very well (round window corners + square blind = gap), since you aren't planning to use blackout or a liner. I'd do one window and see how it goes, then decide.

[07007]

Good luck with the work you are doing. We have to have cushions made that can convert into a bed. Lucky for us we have a neighbor who will do it for us. We have enough to do before we get to that point.

[blkmagikca]

The 3-1/2 time thickness refers to the amount of material for the width of the drapes. If the width to be covered is, say, 50 inches, then the amount of material needed is 3-1/2 times that, namely 175 inches (plus allowances for the finished seams). This adds lots of fullness to the curtains. The pinched pleats are spaced 2-1/2 inches apart; so once the material has the canvas on the top and bottom, and all the ends and edges are finished, the pleats, which take, say 4 inches, have a flat potion between them of 2-1/2 inches. The trick is tacking the pleats.