Every Baywell curtain starts the same way: slowly, in the studio at the back of our cottage in Charlbury. Fabric is chosen, measured, cut, sewn and pressed by hand, nothing skipped, nothing rushed.
A café curtain looks simple from the outside. Getting it to hang the way it should takes rather more care than that.
Choosing the fabric
It starts with the fabric. We've spent a long time finding linens and cottons that feel natural rather than formal, fabrics with enough texture and movement to soften a room.
Light matters. We choose fabrics for how they filter it, the weave of linen, the quiet pattern of a check, the airiness of a sheer cotton. We choose them for how they'll behave once they're gathered on a pole, not just how they look flat on a roll.
Getting the fullness right
Fullness is where a café curtain is won or lost. At Baywell, we work with generous fullness, generally between 1.5 and 2 times the width of the window, depending on the fabric and design.
That's what gives you proper folds rather than a flat stretch of cloth, especially in lighter linens and sheers, which need more fabric behind them to hang well, not less.
Every order is measured carefully before a single cut is made, so the proportions sit right for that window.
Cutting by hand
Once the measurements are set, each panel is cut by hand in the studio. Linen and cotton both carry natural variation, a slub in the weave, a slight shift in tone, and we work with that rather than against it. It's part of what makes a natural fabric a natural fabric.
Sewing and finishing
Every curtain is sewn in-house. Hems are kept neat, headings are gathered softly, and the aim throughout is the same: relaxed, but properly finished. The kind of curtain that hangs well from the day it arrives.
The final press
Before it leaves the studio, every curtain is pressed and checked by hand. It's a small stage, but it's the one that settles the fabric into its final fall and gives the finish its polish without losing the softness underneath.
Built to last, not to trend
We're not chasing what's fashionable this season. The approach stays the same: natural fabric, generous fullness, made by hand. Curtains are meant to sit quietly in a home for years.
