We are sometimes asked what we mean by “hand finished”. When making curtains and Roman blinds the widths of main fabric, lining and interlining are machined together. The rest of the process is hand-stitched. This means the interlining is locked to the main fabric by hand-stitching, the edges of the curtains or blinds are turned in and hand-stitched, the hem is turned up and hand-stitched and the lining is locked to the interlining by hand. On curtains pinch pleats are firstly machined to ensure strength and then finished by hand. Gathered headings can be finished using a heading tape, which is machined or hand-gathered, which is an entirely hand sewn process.
There is no doubt that hand-finished work produces a far superior product.
The alternative to hand-finished is machine made when everything is machine-sewn. This a less expensive option as it is less labour intensive, but can only be used for lined only curtains and blinds as interlined curtains and blinds must be hand-finished to ensure stability.