Improving our home flow

Involve your primary school children in producing curtains for your classroom

21 July 2016

Timmothy Mitchelle

Brighten up your primary school classroom with a set of curtains made from fabric decorated with fabric paint by your home room class.

Planning the curtains

Guide the children in your class to measure the size of the windows in the classroom. Encourage them to work out how many curtains will be needed. Divide the class into as many groups as there will be curtains. Each group should decide on the design for their curtain. Every child must have the chance to paint or write something on the curtain.

Choosing the fabric for the curtains

Choose  a heavy fabric for the curtains. A light coloured fabric would work best, so that the colour will not detract from the fabric paint at all. White is the best possible colour to use, but will also show dust and dirt more quickly than a slightly darker colour.

Dimensions of the fabric for the curtains

You will need fabric that is at least fifty centimetres longer than your window. This allows space for the curtain tape at the top of the curtains as well as for a significant hem at the bottom.

Usually there will be two drops per window. Classrooms are different from other rooms and you may decide to have only one drop per window if they are narrow enough.

With conventional curtaining in the home, the fabric for each drop is at least 1,5 or even twice as wide as the width of the window it is expected to cover. This allows the curtains to be pulled up and gathered at the top to give them a fullness, while ensuring that they are still wide enough to cover half of the window. The curtains for your classroom can be less gathered and less full than conventional curtains, because you want to be able to see the children's art. It will be sufficient for each drop in your case to be only 1,2 times the width of the window area to be covered.

Decorating the curtains

Allocate one day to decorating the curtains. Give each group their piece of fabric and a set of fabric paints. Allow the children to execute the design that they planned for their curtain.

It may be most practical to arrange the decorating of the curtains for a Saturday and to encourage the parents of the children to be present to supervise and to help if necessary.

Making up the curtains

Once the fabric has been decorated, the curtains can be made up professionally, or with the help of willing parents.

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