Making my first set of curtains

My wife won't sew. I am pretty good with my hands and like interior design. Why shouldn't I make them myself I thought?

I like a challenge so I am not starting with simple ones. My living room has two windows, one facing North and one South requiring curtains some eight feet tall by eight feet wide. The period is early Victorian but the style still quite classical.

My chosen design is in gold silk, lined and interlined, with french pleat headings. These are to be hung from a brass pole. Above this is to be a three inch reeded oak pole with swags and tails, edged with a yellow and green bullion fringe and tails lined in olive green silk.

I have made the first pair of curtains and am now starting on the swags.