ONLINE (FLEXIBLE)
Professional Soft Furnishings & Curtain Making Diploma
A globally recognised Level 3 qualification; studied flexibly online, offering essential skills, career pathways and guaranteed progression to an NDA Bachelor’s Degree.
Start Any Time
No Entry Requirements
No previous qualifications required! Age 16+ and an interest in soft furnishings & curtain making.
Assessment
No exams – Tutor assessment only, portfolio moderation by AIM Qualifications.
Learn How to Create Beautiful Soft Furnishings
This is the ideal course if you want to design and make beautiful hand finished curtain projects for your home, or if you would like to set up your own lucrative soft furnishings business and workroom. These specialist curtain making skills are highly sought after by interior designers and discerning clients.
If you have an existing business but don’t have the advanced skills required to offer a hand finished design service, then you can enhance your business by studying flexibly around your existing projects. You can even go on to study a bachelor’s degree.
What our Students Say
Course Breakdown
You will study 8 dedicated units during this professional soft furnishings & curtain making diploma.
Unit 1 - Practical Skills for Professional Curtain Making & Soft Furnishings
Practical Skills for Professional Curtain Making & Soft Furnishings
This unit introduces you to the essential tools, terminology and techniques that form the foundation of professional curtain making and soft furnishings. You’ll learn how to measure windows, carry out site surveys, and understand how different treatments transform a room. Through hands-on activities, you’ll build core construction skills such as cutting, stitching and creating trims, giving you the confidence to approach a variety of projects with precision and creativity. This unit also includes:
- Window measuring and site surveys
- Styles of window treatments and their visual impact
- Components, fixtures and fittings for installation
- Practical fabric handling and construction skills
- Creating decorative piping and trims
Unit 2 - Understanding Fabric & Colour Theory
Understanding Fabric & Colour Theory
This unit explores the fascinating world of fabrics and colour, helping you choose the right materials for any curtain or soft furnishing project. You’ll discover how different fabrics perform, when and why fire-retardant treatments are essential, and how colour can transform a space both visually and emotionally. By applying colour theory and exploring trends, you’ll gain the confidence to create inspiring schemes that enhance mood, style and proportion. This unit also includes:
- Recognising fabric types & their suitability for curtain designs
- Understanding fire-retardancy and its applications
- Colour theory, colour schemes and the psychology of colour
- How to produce professional sample boards
- Identifying fabric suppliers and new collections
- Recognising historical uses of fabric in interiors
Unit 3 - Developing Professional Curtain Making Techniques
Developing Professional Curtain Making Techniques
This unit builds your skills in making beautifully finished, professional-quality curtains. You’ll learn how to select the right fabrics, linings, interlinings, fixtures and fittings, while developing the precision needed to calculate fabric quantities for both plain and patterned designs. Through hands-on practice, you’ll refine techniques such as mitred corners, weights, trims and heading tapes, ensuring every curtain you create achieves an accurate fit and a flawless finish. This unit also includes:
- Selecting appropriate materials, fixtures and fittings
- Calculating fabric quantities for plain and patterned designs
- Preparing fabrics with accuracy and precision
- Mitred corners, weights, trims, linings and interlinings
- Applying professional hand and machine stitching techniques
Unit 4 - Constructing Curtains & Valances with Handmade Headers
Constructing Curtains & Valances with Handmade Headers
This unit introduces you to the art of creating handmade headers, a traditional technique that gives curtains and valances a truly bespoke finish. You’ll explore a variety of styles, from triple and double pleats to goblet and cartridge designs, learning how different combinations transform the look of a window treatment. Through practical activities, you’ll master the skills of calculating pleats, preparing fabrics, inserting buckram and adding trims, achieving professional results every time. This unit also includes:
- Exploring traditional and contemporary handmade header styles
- Calculating pleats, spaces and fabric requirements
- Preparing fabrics and decorative trims
- Inserting buckram tape for structure and support
- Constructing pleats for a range of headings
Unit 5 - Constructing a Roman Blind
Constructing a Roman Blind
This unit focuses on the skills needed to design and make beautifully tailored Roman blinds. You’ll learn how to select the right fabrics for both function and style, while understanding the safety standards and devices that must be applied for legal compliance. Through accurate measuring, precise cutting and professional construction techniques, you’ll create a fully functioning Roman blind, complete with panels or trims, ready for installation. This unit also includes:
- Understanding the qualities and styles of Roman blinds
- Selecting suitable fabrics and decorative trims
- Window blind safety standards and compliance
- Measuring and cutting fabric with precision
- Constructing a professional Roman blind
- Combining hand and machine stitching techniques
Unit 6 - Developing Professional Cushion Making Skills
Developing Professional Cushion Making Skills
This unit introduces you to the design and construction of cushions, combining style with functionality. You’ll explore a variety of cushion types, fillings, fabrics, trims and fastenings, learning how to select the right materials for different purposes. Through hands-on practice, you’ll refine skills in accurate measuring, preparing fabrics, and applying professional hand and machine stitching, enabling you to create beautifully finished cushions to a professional standard. This unit also includes:
- Exploring cushion styles and their applications
- Recognising cushion fillings and their suitability
- Selecting appropriate fabrics, trims and fastenings
- Calculating fabric quantities for different cushion designs
- Preparing fabrics with seam allowances and trim considerations
Unit 7 - Constructing Tiebacks & Padded Pelmets
Constructing Tiebacks & Padded Pelmets
This unit explores the design and construction of pelmets and tiebacks, essential finishing touches that enhance both the style and proportions of a window treatment. You’ll discover how different shapes, materials and trims create looks suited to traditional or contemporary interiors. Through practical activities, you’ll learn how to prepare templates, cut and stiffen fabrics, add decorative details and apply stitching techniques, before completing each piece with professional fixtures and fittings. This unit also includes:
- Exploring pelmet and tieback styles for different interiors
- Selecting suitable fabrics, stiffeners and fixings
- Preparing templates with accuracy
- Cutting and preparing fabrics with decorative trims
- Using stiffening materials for structure and finish
- Applying stitching techniques, fixtures and fitting
Unit 8 - Setting up a Soft Furnishing Business
Setting up a Soft Furnishing Business
This unit prepares you to develop the skills and knowledge needed to plan and run a curtain making and soft furnishing business. You’ll learn how to set up an efficient workroom, manage costs and price your services accurately to help ensure profitability. You’ll also explore how to attract clients, build a professional brand and establish strong supplier relationships, giving you the confidence to launch and grow your own soft furnishing enterprise. This unit also includes:
- Setting up a professional soft furnishing workroom
- Tools, equipment and materials for efficient production
- Costing and pricing soft furnishing services
- Identifying customers and building a brand
- Marketing and promoting your business effectively
- Sourcing materials, managing suppliers and trade accounts
Is This Course For You?
- Do you love the different colours, textures and patterns of fabrics around you?
- Would you like to make exclusive hand finished soft furnishings for your home?
- Have you already made your own simple curtains successfully?
- Would you like to start your own business but need a professional qualification?
If the answer is yes… then this is the course you are looking for!
The NDA Diploma in Professional Soft Furnishings and Curtain Making will put you on the path to starting the business you have always wanted. It will also give you the opportunity to study one of our online bachelor’s degree courses if you decide you want to push your skills further.
Flexible
Affordable
Online
Internationally Recognised
A Trusted & Accredited Qualification
NDA has over 35 years experience in teaching interior design and over 35,000 alumni from over 100 countries. This course is a trusted way to help pursue your passion and kick-start your career.
This Level 3 Professional Soft Furnishings & Curtain Making Diploma is globally recognised, accredited by AIM Qualifications and regulated by Ofqual, meaning you can work legally as an interior designer or gain enough educational credits to study an online Bachelor’s Degree if you so choose.
Recognition in Europe
UK Level 3 qualifications correspond to Level 4 of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF).
Students in France may also apply to ENIC-NARIC France for an attestation de comparabilité where required.
Online (Flexible) Diploma Pricing
Fees and payment options differ depending on whether you are a UK resident or an internationally based student.
Price Match Guarantee:As a not-for-profit foundation, we are so confident in the price of our Diploma’s that if you can find the same level of education for less, we will match it!
UK Students
Pay in Full
£1,645
£895
On Enrolment
Spread the Cost
8x Monthly Payments
£120
£960 in Total*
Breathe easy. Spread the cost of your course over 8 months.
*Monthly payments includes admin fee
International Students
Pay in Full
One-Time Payment
$1,850 (USD)
On Enrolment
Make one easy payment to cover the full cost of your course.
Save $250 by paying in full
Spread the Cost
7x Monthly Payments
$2,100 (USD)
In total*
Spread the cost of your course.
*Monthly payments include admin fee.
How Will You Study Online?
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Responsive Learning, Designed For You.
Offering a fully responsive learning experience our course content can be opened, studied and enjoyed on any device, from anywhere in the world.
Virtual Learning Studio
How do you learn online, you ask? It’s simple: introducing our Virtual Learning Studio, or VLS for short. The VLS is our exclusive, online resource which replaces the normal lectures given in Colleges and Universities.
Students can rewind and re-watch until they are sure they have understood. No frantic note taking and no missing an important lecture! Study when and where it suits you!
Personal Tutors
Every National Design Academy student has a Personal Tutor to guide them through their qualification.
You have unlimited access to your tutor and can contact them by email, telephone, zoom or in-person as often as you wish.
Student Support Team
We also have a dedicated Student Support and Administration Team to help deal with any other queries such as payments, student loans advice and anything else you may need a helping hand with.
Our Student Helpline is available Monday to Friday from 9.00 to 17:00 (UK Time).
Group Tutorials
All delivered online via zoom, join NDA tutors and like-minded peers to discuss design topics, course content and gain valuable live feedback.
As a Diploma level student, you will be invited to course introduction sessions, design discussions and also receive advice on how to progress once you complete your course.
Online Forums
Once you enrol, you will also have the opportunity to join our dedicated NDA Facebook discussion group. Student cohorts will often set up their own Whatsapp chat groups to communicate also.
Students enjoy discussing their design projects, encouraging others and offering advice, as well as sharing work and offering top tips for approaching units.
What's Next?
An NDA Soft Furnishings & Curtain Making Diploma will provide you with the knowledge and skills to start your own business, the qualification to progress to higher education or why not both! Find out more below…
Higher Education
Successful completion of your NDA Soft Furnishings & Curtain Making Diploma provides a guaranteed place on one of our online Bachelor’s Degrees; if you enrol within 12 months, you’ll also be eligible for our Progression+ Scheme to help reduce your tuition fees. Degrees are validated by De Montfort University (DMU).
For those who wish to continue their study at an on campus university, you can top up any existing UCAS points you may have with points from an NDA Diploma.
NDA Professional Diplomas = 24 UCAS Tariff Points
Careers
The NDA Professional Soft Furnishings & Curtain Making Diploma is designed to help you start your own business. Like the Diploma course itself, you can work flexibly for your clients around your family commitments and gradually expand your business.
Many of our Diploma students start their own business and then progress to study for their NDA Bachelor’s Degree flexibly alongside their client projects.
Stay On, Study & Save
We love to watch our students succeed, those that complete one of our Short, Diploma or Degree courses gain access to our Progression+ Scheme giving you money back for continuing to study with us.
Alternatively, our courses are built with business in mind, giving you the skills to begin work as a freelance designer in the exciting world of Interior Design.
Save £500/$600
On your next course, T&Cs apply.
Progression
Guaranteed
Student Success Stories
Hear what our amazing students have to say about studying their Professional Soft Furnishings & Curtain Making Diploma with the National Design Academy.
I wanted to refine my curtain and blind-making skills, and the NDA course stood out as the perfect fit. If you are considering it, just do it! You won’t regret it. And get the most out of the time you have at the NDA and the contact you have with the very knowledgeable tutors...
I was looking online for a course to do curtain making, and the only course I could find with a qualification was at the NDA. The tutors have been excellent, they have been very knowledgeable and professional. I'd really recommend this course...
I chose the NDA to begin this process of starting my own business in interior design and curtain making and soft furnishing. For me, the beauty of how the course is put together, is you can actually see your own personal journey, through the development, through the learning, through all the practical tasks...
Student Gallery
A sample of work completed by our talented Soft Furnishings & Curtain Making diploma students.
Get Equipped
To complete your NDA Soft Furnishings & Curtain Making diploma course, you’ll need access to the right tools – and we’ve got you covered!
Be sure to read our full Equipment & Resources page before you apply. All essential and recommended equipment is availabe to buy from the NDA Art Shop at exclusive student prices!
Upgrade Your Study Option & Qualify Faster!
Alongside ‘Online Flexible’ study, NDA also offers our accelerated ‘In-Studio Fast-Track’ study option for the Professional Soft Furnishings & Curtain Making diploma; find out more below…
Online Flexible
Diploma
- Start whenever you like & study flexibly at your own pace
- Fully online with no scheduled classes
- Perfect for balancing work, family, or travel
- No entry requirements & no exams
- Fully accredited & globally recognised
- Work legally as an interior designer anywhere in the world
- Instalment options available
- UK Fees part subsidised by UK Government
In-Studio
Diploma
- Two weeks of face-to-face training followed by home-study modules
- Work directly with tutors and fellow students in a professional studio
- Our most interactive and collaborative study option
- No entry requirements & no exams
- Fully accredited & globally recognised
- Instalment options available
- UK Fees part subsidised by UK Government