There are still ways you can draw your curtains with a Velcro attachment. Let's review an important principle. A curtain will swag if the panel is taller than it is wide. The narrower the panel, the better it will swag. Two adjacent panels 8ft. tall will each swag 4ft creating an 8ft. doorway. But there is a little trick we'd like to share with you with this clever idea from one of our clients.

This client (top photos) had a 3-sided "U-shaped exposure that measured 8ft deep x 20ft. wide x 8ft. tall . He used two symmetric 18ft. panels that met in the middle of the center exposure. For any given panel, he detaches the upper corner at the house, folds the curtain in two and reattaches the house corner to the outer support corner. The curtain pivots around a central curtain hook & eye-screw and swings like a gate doubling back on itself.

He swings the other upper corner of the curtain back to the same outer support column in the same way and reattaches it. Now both upper corners of the curtain panel are attached next to each other at the outer support column. The resulting folded curtain measures 4ft on one side and 5ft. on the center face. It's a bit of a stretch and breaks the rule that the curtain must be taller than wide but will still swag.

The Roman shade
Some clients have improvised a Roman shade by drawing the curtain upward. It is best if your curtain panels do not turn a corner, particularly a right angle corner.

And wouldn't you know it? The only photo examples we have of this Roman shade technique break this rule and turn these octagonal gazebo corners. Click photos to enlarge.

These clients attached 2 eye-screws along the top attachment surface. One eye-screw is outside the panel, while the other eye-screw is just inside the panel.

The client ties a cord to the outside eye-screw, loops the cord under the curtain panel, and threads the cord through the eye-screw using it as a pulley. To raise the curtain, simply hoist her straight up.