1987 Vanagon GL Westfalia Curtains

There are 10 curtains, 8 of which make up four pairs. Imagine being inside your van facing front. Turn in a clockwise circle and you'll see the curtains in this order, and notice how they're hung:
Front
Snaps to the van interior at sides and top; covers drivers and front-passenger's side windows as well as windshield; has elastic edge at top that drapes over the visors
Sliding Door
Hangs using drapery sliders; has elastic at bottom with a plastic ring at each end that holds the bottom edge of the curtain closer to the van
Passenger-Left
Hangs using drapery sliders; passenger-side bungee cord attached to the van interior holds bottom edges close to the van
Passenger-Right
Hangs from a flat curtain rod; passenger-side bungee cord attached to the van interior holds bottom edges close to the van
Back-Left
Hangs from flat curtain rods top and bottom
Back-Right
Hangs from flat curtain rods top and bottom
Closet-Left
Hangs from a flat curtain rod; driver-side bungee cord attached to the van interior holds bottom edges close to the van
Closet-Right
Hangs using drapery sliders; driver-side bungee cord attached to the van interior holds bottom edges close to the van
Sink-Left
Hangs using drapery sliders; driver-side bungee cord attached to the van interior holds bottom edges close to the van
Sink-Right
Hangs using drapery sliders; driver-side bungee cord attached to the van interior holds bottom edges close to the van
van curtain positions
1987 Vanagon Westfalia Curtain Positions

Materials needed:

To make replacement curtains, you'll need to get:

Hints on buying stuff

If you care what your curtains will look like from the outside, look at both sides of the fabric. Try to get fabric that doesn't unravel easily, since it's harder to work with and may fall apart when/if you ever wash your curtains.

Cheap thread is a nuisance to work with. Buy good thread.

Cheap elastic will soon lose its stretch. Buy good elastic.

Here's a source for some drapery ribbon that might work: Recmar Products; look for "wrinkle-band tape". I haven't seen this stuff in person, but it seems to be similar to what's on the Westy curtains. Otherwise, you might try to build your own (see section at bottom). GoWesty and BusDepot both sell curtain hardware, but not the drapery ribbon.)

The small curtain snaps are 3/8" snaps for light-weight or medium-weight fabric. When I used snaps, I always use the no-sew ones (comparable to Dritz 15-65). They should be available at any sewing goods store or department; usually sold in sets of 6 or 12 with an attaching tool. You'll need 6. But buy extras ... they're thin and a bit fiddly to attach, and you'll likely mess up one or two. They're not horribly expensive.

The large curtain snap is a 5/8" heavy-duty snap (comparable to Dritz 5-1). It should also be available at any sewing goods store or department.

Van-Body Snaps - to see what the parts look like, go to this page and look at:

You'll need six for the front curtain, and seven more for the curtain straps (though we never close our Closet Left curtain ... and I'm not even sure it has a curtain strap). You can probably find them at a marine store or an RV store. I think I bought some in a kit with an attaching tool at a Wal-Mart.

Fabric and Layout

Yardage is typically sold in widths of 45" or 60". You might be able to find fabric in different widths, and you'll need to create a layout like these to determine how much to buy. Your fabric might have a one-way pattern, such as stripes, which limits the way you can cut your fabric. The dimensions shown here are the sizes you should cut (finished curtain sizes are in a diagram below). If you err in the size of the curtains, always err too large. At worst, your curtains will be looser and longer but they'll still cover your windows!

You'll need 5-3/4 yards of either width for the Front and Sliding-Door curtains as well as the curtain straps:

If you have 60" wide fabric you'll need an additional 4 yards for the other curtains:

If you have 45" wide one-way fabric you'll need an additional 7-3/4 yards for the other curtains (if you try to lay out the curtains sideways as for non-one-way fabric, your pattern will be going the wrong way!):

If you have 45" wide *non* one-way fabric you'll need an additional 6-1/2 yards for the other curtains:

Here is a diagram showing Cut size and Finished Size. It also shows how each edge gets finished and shows snap placement. If there's only one snap, such as A, then it snaps to the interior of the van. On the double-width strap, snap N snaps to itself (it doesn't have screw-in stud; but snap O snaps to a screw-in stud in the van body.

Construction

Here are the steps to follow to construct each curtain. For some techniques, see the following section.

Front:

Sliding Door: Passenger Left:
Closet Right:
Over-Sink Left:
Over-Sink Right: Passenger Right:
Closet Left: Back Left:
Back Right: Straps:

Techniques

To sew a hem, fold the fabric once the width of the hem and then fold it again. Sew near the top of the second fold, as shown in the diagram below.

To sew a tube, first sew a hem. Then sew a second seam near the edge of the fabric, as shown in the diagram below.

Below is a diagram showing the bottom edge of the sliding-door curtain:

Below is a diagram showing how to sew the elastic into the front curtain:
Tack the two ends of the elastic close to the top cut edge, and sew through the middle of the elastic while stretching it so the fabric lies flat while you sew.
Fold the fabric twice, as for a hem.
While you sew the seam as for the hem, stretch the elastic so the fabric lies flat while you sew.
(Can someone describe this better?)

Below are diagrams showing how to sew on the drapery ribbon:
Lay the drapery ribbon on the *right* side of the fabric, 1" down from the cut edge.
Fold the two ends of the drapery ribbon around to the wrong side of the fabric.
(Optional) Sew the draper ribbon to the fabric at the top edge of the drapery ribbon.
(Optional) Sew the draper ribbon to the fabric at the bottom edge of the drapery ribbon.
Fold the fabric down 1" as though for a hem, and then again 1".
Sew across the top edge and bottom edge of the drapery ribbon.

If you need to construct drapery ribbon ...

Here's what the drapery ribbon looks like. If you need to construct some, you'll need 3/4" or 1" cloth ribbon and 1/4" cloth ribbon.

Here's the pattern that shows how to attach ribbons together. The hatched areas show where the 1/4" ribbon is sewn to the wider ribbon, and the blank areas are loops (not sewn). But if I were going to construct drapery ribbon, I wouldn't worry too much about following this pattern. I'd just make a note of how many pairs of loops I needed for my drapery hangers, and lay out and sew the 1/4" ribbon to the wider ribbon appropriately.

Now that this is on the Vanagon wiki, if you have additions, comments, corrections then please edit the Vanagon Wiki ...
Cross posted at The Vanagon Wiki