I can't think of any reason to wash drapes or curtains before hanging them. Unless you are trying to get them to shrink before you hem them to fit.

Linen and viscose - you are asking for trouble if you try to wash them.

Sorry, but washing perfectly clean curtains mystifies me. My experience has been that the curtains will never hang as nicely, without some ironing, once you wash out the fabric sizing that is on all new fabrics. They are likely to shrink a bit with the 35% cotton, so you may have to iron and stretch them to get them to their original length.

The other drapes cannot be washed. That viscose if like rayon and it will shrink shrink shrink. Also the linen will wrinkle as it always does.

I put up drapes and steam them on the rod, or use the spray wrinkle release from Dollar General. I spray it on the fabric and smooth the surface with my hands to remove any wrinkles. Then if necessary I pleat them by hand on the rod and tie them with strips of fabric to hold the folds in place for a day or two

OK - thanks. I thought I had read somewhere (here maybe?) to wash before hanging and I didn't understand why but thought it just should be done. I should learn to listen to the little voice in my head. :o:

I will just give them the iron treatment and lay them across the bed to prevent creases until they can be hung from the new rod. We'll need 1 panel of each ready to mark the height of the rod.

Jenn -
If you are making slipcovers or curtains you plan to wash, you wash and dry the yardage before you cut the fabric so it gets the shrinking over with.

But if you bought dry clean oinly curtains, they are dry clean only.

prairiemom - thanks for the tip! I'll do that.

Thanks to everyone again for your comments. We had to exchange the rod today (wrong size) so they're still not up, but hopefully by the end of the week. It will be the cherry on top of the sundae, the end of a very-long-awaited renovation of our bedroom.