Any length of flat material, usually woven, used to fasten, tie or support.
1. Decorative Tape
Narrow bands of woven tapes or ribbons can be used in interior furnishings as decoration – to finish an edge, create a line or identify a form, as fixings – to hold curtains to the poles, to tie curtains back, to raise and lower blinds, to pull in fullness, and as closures – to ruche the ends of bolsters, and as ties on cushions and loose covers.
2. Heading Tape
A stiff, herringbone woven tape in widths from 1-7 cm, that is secured to the top and back of gathered and flat curtains or blinds to keep the header upright and stable; it is also used as the inner stiffening of hook-bands and wide ties. The tape is good looking enough to act as the tied fixings and closures for cushions and loose covers.
3. Curtain heading tape
A pre-constructed tape with hook pockets and strings that is stitched by hand or machine to the back of curtain tops; as the strings are pulled the curtain gathers up to the required width.
4. India Tape
A basic loose woven tape primarily for functional purposes: sewn onto the backs and undersides of furnishings to tie them into place, at the lower edge of bedhead loose covers to close them under the frame, at each corner of a bedvalance to attach them to bed posts or legs, and to secure pelmets and tails ( of swags and tails ) back to the walls and boards. India tape is good enough in its own right to use for simple tied closures
A closure made of two tapes that lock together. The one side, the hard side, is constructed with hooked ends and the other, the soft side, with multifilament yarns. Each tape is stitched either side of an opening, so that when they are pressed together they interlock securely.
Fixing It: Ideally, for example with blind and pelmet headings, the soft side should go onto the fixed section and the hooked side pushed down onto it, so that the hooks have as much opportunity to grab as possible. In reality, however, the hard side is horrid to work with so if it makes little difference the hard side can be the fixed side. You need the best quality to hold the weight of furnishings; there are many touch and close tapes made but the first is trademarked Velcro™.
An internationally successful closure used for everything from shoes to blind fittings, it is a highly effective but not very attractive closure. Only use in interior furnishings where it won’t be seen, underneath and behind pelmets, loose covers, canopies, etc. Touch and close tape is perfect for trainers – it should never be seen or used for cushions and loose covers.