I think 1.5 is the minimum - I like 2X for fullness.

When I make pleated drapes, they're between 2 1/2 and 3 times fullness.

I think my front windows are 33", maybe 36". I also didn't want a big full look, I like tailored. These one width panels are interlined and don't look skimpy at all (to me). If I wanted my windows to look wider I could have mounted more outside the window, then I would have done 1.5 widths, but I wanted to save the wall space for a mirror and pictures on the other wall. The panels are made with 6 inch long pleats and are pleated at 2 1/2 times fullness (pleat vs space ratio), as I remember.
Here's a picture for a visualization of one width panels in a colonial home:

I have the pleats pushed together at the top so I could get as much light in as possible and I like the view. If I had 1.5 widths on the narrow window with the thickness in the interlined drapes, I think they would crowd into the glass more than I wanted. They were not meant to close, we don't need the privacy.

Here's what my favorite WT book says:

Heavy or stiff fabrics such as damask, brocade, and lightweight fabrics that are lined and interlined: 2 to 2 1/2 times the width of the rod.

Medium weight fabrics such as chintz: 2 1/2 to 3 times the width of the rod.

Lightweight fabrics such as gingham, taffeta, lightweight silks: 3 - 4 times the width of the rod.

Very light and soft fabrics such as voile, tissue-weight silks: up to 5 times the width of the rod.

My two cents worth: if you never plan to close them you could get a way with less width.

Thanks everyone for weighing in. Sallymo, are those your drapes? They are lovely AND very similar to what I plan on doing. I will have a yellow/gold damask paper on the walls with yellow drapes with trim on the leading edge. I love seeing your picture. Thank you. Your windows look similar to mine.

Artlover, thanks for the expertise from the book. My fabric is lightweight, but will be interlined. This makes me think i should do the 1.5. I will ask my decorator how many inches she thinks it will be and may try to do a mock up on the windows.

Anyone else have pictures or comments?

Kelleg, I reread your OP and the one Sallymo posted. I wonder if there is a confusion of terminology? Note that the book says 1 1/2 fullness, etc, it means that both panels combined will measure 1 1/2 the width of the rod when finished. So lets say your windows are 24" wide and you put up a 30" rod. Each panel would have a finished width of 22.5". (30" times 1.5 divided by 2)

Your seamstress can't possibly mean 1 width. If you did that the panels would be completely flat with no gathers or pleats when fully closed.

sallymo's panels are 2.5 fullness, that gives you an idea of the look; her folds are rich and generous. This means that the finished width of one drape is 21 inches , maximum , since most fabrics are 54 inches.

Terminology is important, imo, a panel of fabric is one 54 inch width ; 1.5 panels is 81 inches of fabric so a finished drape would be around 32 inches, if gathered at 2.5 times.
Your seamstress is also right, since your window is 24 inches, one panel of fabric would yield a 24 inch drape,
at double fullness, 2 drapes of that size would fold and stack nicely. You must take into account fold overs at the side.

Ok, I am mixed up! I guess I don't understand the terminology. And honestly, reading your responses--I am still confused. I think my seamstress wants me to do panels that are 54" of fabric. My decorator wants me to add 54 to 27. Would that make sense??? Help!

For a drape that closes you normally measure the window and then multiply that width by 2.5 or 3 or 2.
2 1/2 will drape nicely especially if it is interlined.

I suspect your windows are 36 inches. So 36 " window X 2.5 fullness =90 inches of required fabric.
Drapery material is usually 54 inches wide.
90" divided by the 54 inches gives you a 1.66 widths.
so round up to 2 widths for a drape that closes for a 36 inch window. I realize that you want just panels, but I think since your windows are so narrow, you are automatically going to have panels that close. Anything narrower would just look skimpy.
I think 2 widths per window would work. There would be one 54 inch piece of fabric that would be pleated hanging on each side.
Do you want the panels to totally clear the glass ?
Stack back formula is rod width divided by 6
So if your rod was 36 inches, your drapes would stack back 6 inches when pulled tightly together at each side. If you want the drapes to totally clear the glass then you would have a 48 inch rod.
What your decorator is recommending is just going to give you a thicker stack back on each side of the window.
Hope that isn't too confusing.

Chloe, your explanation is good and thorough. Thank you. It is confusing, but not because of how you wrote it, but because this just isn't my thing. i am going to measure my windows and I may get back on here and see what you guys think.

Kelleg
2 widths on a 36 inch window is 3 times fullness.
I think that is plenty of fullness for an interlined drape .
I'm not sure why your decorator thinks that you need a width and a half on each side. That would be 4 1/2 times fullness which I think you would only use on an unlined shirred on type .

Every time I try to 'cheap out' on fabric width, I am sorry.

So sorry.

Go 1.5

Red

Kelleg, I think I am confused because I never really understood if you were going to close these or not. The talk of 1 or 1 1/2 widths sometimes means they are just stationary panels. If they are to close they'll discuss the rod width and fullness (2x's or 2.5x's) because they'll need to be able to figure the yardage which may come out to be 1 1/3 width, actually. I don't think I "cheaped out" on fabric by having one width, but apparently it looks that way.

All this drape stuff confuses the heck out of me too but I just wanted to say Sallymo your curtains and home are very pretty! Love those tassels.

sallymo, you did not "cheap out" on the fabric. What you have is exquisite and perfect. Also, I've found if you have a beautiful pattern on your curtains it shows to much greater advantage when the curtains are not too full, since you see more detail. As in so many things, your own gut feeling is often the best way to go. The whole room is lovely, by the way.

I agree sallymo. Your room is beautiful and those drapes are perfect for that size window.

Kellyeg
Calico corners has one width interlined silk panels in stock at my store. If you have a store near you you could go in to see what a one width panel looks like.

I guess I'm the one who is confusing terminology. I wasn't thinking in terms of how many widths of fabric to use, I was thinking in terms of fullness. Sorry if I added to the confusion.

You have hired a decorator. Trust her and do what she says.

Please somebody, anybody is there a website or a reference work to be consulted on this type of issue? I am totally confused by the terminology used here and must order curtains soon. I feel as if I'm at the mercy of whoever is selling the curtains and I have no basis for judging anything I'm told by them. Sallymo, your curtains are beautiful. Kelleg, for the past 30 years I've had nothing but blinds and shutters so curtains are definitely not my thing either so I sympathize with your confusion. I'm also a hard copy type of person so I like to have real paper pages in front of me to shuffle and compare options when I'm dealing with things like measurements and alternative ways of accomplishing a goal. Add to that the fact that I'm not at all able to visualize. I guess I'm just begging for mercy here and some sort of guide or guru of curtains to consult.

Everyone, thanks for posting. I am not sure if my decorator and seamstress are talking about fullness or fabric widths. I want to make sure I want the extra fabric b/c the material is expensive and it all adds up!

I think I will ask them both for clarification.

Sallymo, I think your curtains look great. They look similar to panels I have in my current house. I like that amount of material.

Also, I do not plan on closing these.

Thanks again.

flseadog, the best advice I can give you is to ask for a catalog from Country Curtains (they have a web site). I've ordered quite a few curtains from them (they don't just have country styles,since they have very reasonable prices and I never had a problem understanding what they were talking about. You can also order sample materials and call them. They're very friendly on the phone too with any questions you might have.

sallymo - your room is beautiful - like a magazine spread! I don't know anybody IRL who has homes decorated like I see here on GW! Is your panel 54" or narrower? It looks perfect.

I too am confused by widths - talking window widths or fabric (54") widths?

Do you always have to use at least enough to cover the windows when closed, even if you never plan on closing them?

I want to hang a single panel (42" wide) to each side of a double (72", 77" with casing?) window. Obviously these won't close - don't want much of a stack-back. I have inside mount Romans in coordinating fabric for light control. Using the same panels (and shades) on 36" (41" with casing) windows in the same room - again, not much stackback since they are on either side of TV. Is this going to look strange? These aren't lined or pleated. Thanks (sorry for hijack but it's on the same subject, hope OP doesn't mind).

kelleg - what did you decide on for the width of you panels? I getting ready to make panels for my bedroom and I am facing the same question of panel width.

I did single width (54") pinched pleat panels in my bedroom and they are 6 pleats with a 3" return and each side.

I think before you commit to either the 1 1/2 or 1 width for your panels you need to figure out if you want to cover alot of the window, or if you want to leave the window pretty much exposed and have the drapes covering the wall. In some cases, it looks really nice to have your rod start 5-6 inches from the window frame so that your window looks much larger. In Sally's case, she wanted to have her wall exposed for hanging things etc. so if she had done the 1 1/2 width, she would have had to cover either her wall or her window opening another 6 inches or so.

For stationary panels on a window that small, I think a single width is fine. Especially with the cost of drapery fabrics. In addition, the labor costs are generally by widths - so even tho it's a half of a width, they will probably charge 2 widths labor for each panel. So your drapery costs could be substantially higher going the 1 1/2 width.

But again, it would be worth it to spend the extra $$ if you want to have the appearance of either a larger window or a more substantial stacking of pleats. With your size window and description of what you're looking for, I think 1 width of fabric is all you need.

Panels should be 2.5 to 3 x the width of the space of a 54-60-8inch fabric. 24 inches will be the size of your thumb by the time you cinch it up.

I went to a charity show home a few weeks ago . Each room was done by a different designer. The house was a center hall colonial so it had all the 3 ft. windows in a very symmetrical pattern. In some rooms the side panels were 1 width on each side and in other rooms they were 1 1/2 widths on each side.
I couldn't really decide which I prefered. They looked good either way on these 3 ft windows.
I think I would go with the extra 1/2 width on each side if I was putting them on a wider window.

sallymo, your dining room is absolutely gorgeous. So tastefully done!

Bottom line:

This is not a life or death issue. Do whatever looks nice. If someone coems over and gets out a tape measure and critiques the width of your curtains, do not have them over anymore.

Sorry to jump in here so late - does anyone ever use less than 1 width of fabric per panel? The width of the rod I have is 36" and I think I could make due with 1/2 width of fabric (30") per panel. Thoughts?

No

Two times fullness is the way to go. Otherwise they will look like ready made drapes out of the bag. Thin and not elegant. Don't waste money having them made if you are going with one width. That being said, good luck with your project and happy decorating! Wendy Buckner, Wyndora Lynn Design

If you are buying ready made draperies (2 panels) & your window from casing to casing is 31", what would the width of 1 panel need to be?

Are they going to affixed outside the casing, inside the casing or onto the casing.

I would do full width of your decorator fabric--min 44" wide if buying readymades wider panels will always look better because the fullness adds to the beauty one exception to this in such a narrow window would be if you're buying a heavy weight fabric

red

This is easy. For the benefit of later readers (too late for the original poster): You can measure drapes either at the finished top, where they attach to the rod, or at the bottom hem. The confusion here is that some people are talking about the top, while others are referring to the bottom. Fullness is always measured at the bottom hem and indicates the width of the plain fabric without any pleats. This must be more than 100% of the width of your glass. Most people use 2.5 times (250%) fullness for curtains they intend to close. The top measurement is always 100% of the rod length, plus "stack back" (the number of inches the fabric takes up, or "stacks," when it is pulled all the way open, or "back"). Hope this helps.

Very helpful thread. So based on what I'm reading, it seems custom is almost always required. But maybe I'm misunderstanding.

For example, West Elm sells a standard curtain in 48" W. Assuming one chooses 2.5 for fullness, this means their standard width curtain covers 19.2" wide (48"/2.5=19.2"). So 2 of them (one on each side of the window) will cover a 20" wide window with 4" trim on either side and 4.5" rod overhang on either side with a 2.5 fullness. Collectively the 20" wide window with 4" trim on either side is 28". Then add 4.5" overhang for the rod on each side and we get 37" total. 37/2=19.5. Which is basically what their standard 48" W curtain covers at 2.5 fullness.

That is one very small window. I'm struggling to see why the standard curtain would be made to cover such a tiny window. What am I missing?

That’s why factory curtain panels often arent all that great. That, in addition to the fact that they usually aren’t lined, much less interlined, and that the lengths don’t usually make sense. The standard factory panel is 84” long, though sometimes you can get 96” and 108”. 84 brings you to the top if most windows, but you want to have your rod a good 6” above the frame to look good, which leaves you out in the cold looking for a 90” curtain. I’m convinced that window treatments are one area where learning to plan snd sew is an investment that will pay for itself many many times over. There’s a wealth of solid professional youtube help out there, especially on traditional English curtain making. A ping pong table will be a great help…as well as occasionally providing entertainment 😁.