Pencil Pleat, Eyelet, Wave: Curtain Headings and What Each One Does

Two panels of the same fabric can hang like two different objects, and the heading is why. The heading is the finished top of the curtain — the part that connects cloth to rod or track — and it sets three things at once: how much fabric folds into each metre of rail, how deep the stack sits when the panel is open, and whether the curtain slides at all. It is the joint of the whole assembly, and it is chosen later, in a drop-down menu, with less thought than the colour.

What the heading actually controls

A heading does two jobs. It gathers the fabric to a fraction of its flat width — the fullness, typically two and a quarter to two and a half times the rail for pleated styles — and it attaches that gathered cloth to the hardware in a way that either moves or does not.

Gathering and moving pull against each other. The deeper the gathering, the better the panel hangs and the deeper the stack when open; the smoother the attachment, the easier it slides. Every heading type is a position on that trade-off, which is why the fullness multiplier and the heading have to be chosen together rather than separately.

The common headings, and what each is for

Heading	How it attaches	Fullness	Best use
Pencil pleat	Tape with pull-cords, hung on hooks	2–2.5×	General use; adjustable after hanging
Pinch pleat (French pleat)	Sewn three-fold pleats on hooks	2–2.5×	Formal rooms; fixed, deep folds
Eyelet / grommet	Metal rings through cut holes, on a rod	1.5–2×	Casual rooms; easy sliding, shallow stack
Wave	Continuous S-curve on a special track	2–2.5×	Modern interiors; even folds, deep stack
Rod pocket / tab top	Fabric slips over or onto the rod	1.5–2×	Static, decorative panels only

Pencil pleat is the forgiving one. A three- or four-pocket tape is sewn across the top and gathered by pulling cords, which means the fullness can be adjusted on the wall — tightened after a re-hang, loosened if the panel comes up short. The hooks sit in the pockets, so the panel can also be moved down an inch or two on the rail, which is a real advantage when the finished drop is in doubt. The cost is labour: the gathering has to be done by hand, and gathered tape adds bulk at the top.

Pinch pleat is pencil pleat with the gathering sewn in permanently. Each pleat is a stitched three-fold, so the folds fall identically every time the curtain is closed and stack into a neat, deep group when open. It is the heading for heavier face cloths — the weight that makes a velvet panel hang properly is carried by the pleats — and the one that cannot be fudged: the pleat spacing is fixed, so the panel width has to be right before it is sewn.

Eyelet inverts the logic. Metal-ringed holes are punched through the heading and the rod passes through them, so there are no hooks and no tape, and the panel runs on a rod with almost no effort — the right choice for a curtain opened and closed many times a day. The folds form their own tall S-curve, even and regular. The costs are structural: the fullness is lower, the stack is shallow and bulky rather than deep and flat, and the holes are cut, so there is no going back. An eyelet heading also drops the fabric straight from the rod, which leaves a light gap above the panel that no liner closes.

Wave headings are the engineered end of the same idea: a purpose-built track with spaced carriers forms one continuous S-wave along the full width, evenly from end to end, with a stack that compresses tighter than any other type. It needs the matching track, and the panel width has to be calculated, not adjusted — there is no tape to re-gather.

Rod pocket and tab top panels skip the mechanism entirely. They are fine for a static panel that never closes, and wrong for anything that opens: fabric sliding on fabric is high friction, and the pocket bunches up along the rod within a season of use.

How the heading interacts with everything else

The heading is downstream of two decisions and upstream of two more. Downstream of fabric weight — a stiff, heavy cloth holds a pleat and defeats a flimsy eyelet curve — and of the width calculation, because a pleated heading at the wrong multiplier either hangs flat or over-stacks. Upstream of the stack-back, which the heading determines more than anything else, and of the hardware: eyelets need a round rod of the right diameter, pleats need a rail that takes hooks, wave needs its own track.

The room decides which side of the trade-off wins. A bedroom wants the deep stack and tight fit of pleats on a track, which is the light-blocking configuration. A living room that opens onto a garden wants the easy run of eyelets. A bay window rules out rods entirely and, with them, most eyelet panels, because grommets will not pass a bend.

What to check before committing

1. Whether the panel width and the heading fullness were calculated together, as one number, not sold as separate specifications.
2. The stack depth in the open position, stated or estimated — on a narrow wall it decides how much window the open curtain still covers.
3. What the heading expects the hardware to be, and whether that hardware fits the window as built, brackets and bends included.
4. Whether the heading can be adjusted after hanging. A re-gatherable tape is the cheapest insurance against a drop that comes up wrong.

The heading is the least photographed part of a curtain and the last thing worth choosing on looks. What it does to the hang shows every day; what it looks like from the front shows almost never, hidden behind the first fold. The rest of the window numbers — drop, return, stack clearance — are collected in the window edit.