Buying made-to-measure blinds and curtains can be hugely expensive, writes Sheena Grant.

A few years ago I got a quote from a high street store to make curtains for a sitting room window. I could have had a holiday for price they would have charged.

On that occasion I economised by buying the fabric from the shop and finding a local seamstress to make the curtains for me, saving myself several hundred pounds.

A decade or so later, those curtains are still going strong. In fact, I went back to her for a shower room Roman blind and more curtains when I decorated my son’s bedroom a year or two later.

Fast forward a few more years though and he’s outgrown those curtains. He wanted a Roman blind, with blackout lining to stop the sun waking him up far too early on summer mornings.

This time round I wondered if I could save even more money and make a blind myself.

I could use the professionally-made blind in the shower room as a guide and my 1970-something Singer sewing machine, which was secondhand when I bought it and still going strong.

I found some cut-price fabric in the remnant basket at a Laura Ashley store, bought some blackout lining fabric from an online auction site and set to work.

The task was daunting but I figured that if I broke it down into stages and allowed myself plenty of time it would be manageable.

The first stage, cutting the and joining the fabric to get to the correct width and drop, went smoothly enough, as did sewing the lining and fabric together.

I stocked up on other essentials, such as Velcro, blind cord and pull, eyelets and wooden battens to go in sewn pockets on the back of the blind, in local hardware and craft stores and planned my next steps.

The project took days, if not weeks, to complete and was, at times, so tricky that I started to sympathise with the prices some blind and curtain-makers charge.

But eventually, I finished. And, I’m proud to say, it looks all right. Not professional standard but pretty impressive, nevertheless.

Online quotes from a couple of made-to-measure retailers showed they would have charged £300 for a comparable blind. Mine, however, cost no more than £50.

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