Well, after a delay, due mainly to everything going on including work on the motorhome, I've finally got around to doing a few posts to update you all on the progress. The curtains have been a real learning curve and if anyone things they are easy, think again.
I purchased the fabric from Decorama in Moonah for $20.00 per metre (down from $30.00) together with the gathering tape. I asked how much they wanted to make the curtains and it would have doubled the cost so I decided to have a go making them (with some help).
The fabric is not cheap stuff is is triple layered total block-out that is supposed to refelect some heat too, so it should do the job.
Anyway on to the making. The shop told me that usually when you make curtains you measure the width of the window, then double the length of the fabric. I thought that this was too much so I chose to go for 1.5 times the fabric. When the curtains were made we tried to fit the double witdth to the windows and found that they were just too bulky, so it ended up with being about being just about 1.25% the width of the window. This gathers up nicely when open and covers the window well when closed. the pick below best explains. The Mazda already has a curtain track above the windows, so I used this together with some small runners found at Decorama. These little darlings were 25 cents each which quite frankly is a ripoff.
This pic is the curtain over the left front window. You can see that when closed the curtain is hardly gathered at all. This is because this is where the beds are and you need the windows covered and light excluded. Too much gather, too much light comes in.
The pic below shows the same curtain once the curtain across the cab has been fitted and gathered. I have made tie-backs for these curtains which will bunch them together and keep them out of the way when not being used
The front and rear curtains are hung from the top and on tracks that I got from the local caravan parts supplier. The tapes on these curtains were placed very close to the top to allow them to move freely. The runners are much cheaper only 5 cents each.
I have moved ahead quite a bit since the last post, so I will do a few tonight to bring you up to date. Thanks for reading.