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WORKROOM OPERATIONS

To Return or Not To Return?
Knowing and understanding when and how to make a return on a
window treatment is a mark of the professional.

by Kitty Stein, CWP, WCAA

How many times have you walked into someone’s home and noticed that the outside end of the drapery did not turn back to the wall? The average consumer, left to her own designs, will hang a drapery panel with no return to the wall. This is often true, even among some professionals, if a decorator rod or pole is used. Is it right or wrong?

In general—and I do mean in general—it is a mark of professionalism to return any window treatment to the wall. However, individual circumstances and opinions will dictate when a return is not appropriate.

RETURN WITH A PURPOSE

Returns actually do have both a visual and a practical purpose. They block the view of the inner workings of the treatments, e.g. cord pulls, and the window itself. Seeing all the window details from the side tends to detract from the beauty of the treatment. Returns also block out the light from the side and are energy efficient. Enclosing the end of the drapery to the wall will block the heat of summer and the cold of winter that comes through the glass.

Returns are not just for outside-mounted treatments. If you do not put a return on many inside-mounted treatments, the sides are not likely going to hug the window frame completely from top to bottom. These annoying areas of light strike are likely to be more prevalent with pillowcased edges, e.g. cascades. Even the most minimal puckering of the pillowcased seam will cause concave side edges, which become worse the longer they are. Even a small return of perhaps 1 1/2 inches will help the edges hug the sides of the window and block all light.

NO RETURN

There are times, when you might not want a return. If you are doing inside-mount treatments that have so much fullness that the edges will comfortably seal the sides, then a return might not be necessary. If you were mounting standard pinch-pleated draperies on an inside-mount traverse rod, it would be difficult and more labor intensive to make the panels return. To insure that the pinch-pleated panel will hug the sides, put the last pleat close to the outside edge, i.e. 1/2 to one-inch from the edge. This fullness will assist in preventing a light gap.

Personal preference can also come into play here. In the photograph, you see the return view of a swag and cascade over a wooden pole. The cascade has no return but the lace rod pocket panel underneath does. Why? Because I thought the return on the cascades would destroy the effect of the pole wrapped appearance. The swags and cascades were gathered as in a waterfall effect. To have added a return would have added structure and/or formality to something that was to appear to be more casual. Also, this treatment is in a bay window with the side walls flowing into the adjacent walls. Therefore, it would not be as easy to see behind it. The lace panels with returns effectively hide all other objectionable things behind the cascades.

This treatment is in my home. It was done according to what I like. You or your client may prefer a return on the cascades in a similar situation. Designing to individual preferences is what custom is all about.

FLAT OR FULL RETURN

I guess you could say it is industry standard to make pinch-pleat draperies and knife-pleated cascades with a flat return. I don’t know if there are other accepted rules for how much fullness to put into a return. The treatment and the size of the return effect this determination as well as personal preference.

An additional rule that I recommend is to first try to match the return with the face effect and if that is not possible, blend it. For example, we know that standard pinch-pleated draperies with up to a 5 1/2-inch return are flat. I have known cases where the return had to be about nine inches and more. In such cases, I would consider making a pleat within the return as well.

The lace panel in tis treatment has a return, but the cascade does not.

For cascades that are waterfall or rod pocket, I would recommend 1 1/2 fullness.

Experience has taught me that, in general, it is best not to make the return any fuller than that even if the face has more fullness. My preference is to have a straight across return at the bottom of cascades or other shaped valances. Putting more than 1 1/2 fullness in
the return, gives the return a very unruly appearance. As with any rule, there are circumstances where this rule is not the most effective, but it is certainly a place to start your evaluation.

Standard rod pocket top drapery panels allow you to adjust the return fullness as you see fit at installation as long as the rod pocket can follow the rod smoothly into the return. However, there are times when you must consider the return as a separate entity. When I made rod pocket balloon shades or balloon valances, I allowed a half width for each poof and a quarter width for each return. I cut the return to be 1 1/2 fullness. There was a row of rings at the front corner of the return and not at the back. Again, this was my personal preference.

FROM SIMPLE TO COMPLEX

It’s easy to do normal returns but how do you make a return when the rod bracket is in the way? Or the rod bracket has no place to hook a return? Such questions often don’t arise until installation, but it’s important to think about this before the fabrication and before the estimate is given. Fabricating alternative returns take more time, i.e. comes at a higher price.

The lace panel in the photo is on a straight curtain rod (no returns) inside-mounted to the wood bracket. I planned a flat return because in this case I did not need the fullness. I measured the return size in from the side of the panel and made a vertical buttonhole in the face of the rod pocket only. This allowed the rod to come through and mount into its bracket.

The wood bracket had no place to pin the end of the return. To resolve this, I sewed a ring on the face side of the panel return and then put a hook on the inside of the bracket to hold the ring. I also could have used hook and loop tape instead.

Yes, I could have used a regular curtain rod with returns. However, I wanted the lace snug against the bracket and I would have had to mount it into the existing woodwork which is made of vary hard wood. My house will be 100 years old next year! They knew how to build them solid back then! Besides I did not want to put any more holes in woodwork that had more than enough already.

Suppose I had wanted to make the return on the lace panels have some fullness. Then I would have had to gather the return to a tack strip that would be equal to the return measurement.

On the other hand, if I had wanted to make a flat return for the cascades, I would have had a much more complicated task. The cascades were sewn to the swags and that seam was placed on top of the pole. I would have had to plan the finished size of the return and how far down from the top of the pole it would start. Then during fabrication, a rectangle would have been cut out at the top for the return. The remainder of the cascade would be stitched to the swag. This is shown in the left drawing of the cascade illustration.

What the photo doesn’t show is that the cascade on the other side of the window comes off the pole from the top to the front. It wouldn’t look like a wrap if it didn’t. Not only would that cascade need to have the same return cut out, but also a curve cut out to go under the pole—as shown in the right drawing in the cascade Illustration. You might get away without making a complete dip in the return but you would have to round the front of the cascade to fit around the pole.

Let’s go a bit further. If I had wanted fullness in the cascade return, I would have had to calculate that into the return for the cut out. After gathering to a tack strip I would have added hook and loop tape for more stability. Adding returns can end up requiring a great deal of forethought.

DETAILS SPEAK

I have given you my preferences to give you food for thought and ideas on which to build. As a professional, you want a finished treatment and in most cases, a return helps to accomplish this. If and how you add a return is determined by the individual treatment, the kind of hardware used, and sometimes by the customer’s knowledge and attitude.

I once had a designer say, “Make it look difficult because the customer knows how to sew and thinks she can do it herself.” I did. Charged accordingly! She couldn’t have done it the way I did! Mission accomplished!

That little story is certainly not the rule, and I don’t mean to suggest that it could or should be. You know how to do a professional return and it is another check mark for the education you have acquired over and above the average seamstress.

On occasion you may want to point out such custom details. It’s the little things, normally unnoticed, that will impress your customer. She is more likely to remember such tidbits and pass them on to her friends who will be more educated when they are ready for window treatments. Not only will the customer return to you, but she will bring her friends! Ahhh! The joy of the return!