In the new house my sewing room didn't have a curtain pole just a net curtain on a wire.
So I bought a push fit pole from Wilkos, and took the only pair of old curtains which had those rings in the top, shortened them to fit and all was fine.
Yesterday I realised the bottom of one curtain had black mould and it was all a bit yukky. So I washed the net curtain and the curtains (at 30 degrees C gentle cycle) and cleaned the window and windowsill, treating it with an anti mould spray.
The net dried very quickly so I put that back up yesterday. The curtains air dried on the drying racks and I ironed them today and rehung them.
The curtain fronts (cotton) have shrunk slightly in length and width whilst the linings (polyester) have not. And the black mould stain is still slightly visible.
I need the privacy from the neighbours so the curtains are back up with the push fit pole dropped slightly so the curtains are near to the windowsill. Its OK for now.
When it warms up a bit I'll raid the curtains bag in the garage to see what else I have. I have successfully added tabs on the back of a curtain so it can slide along a pole without hooks (across the front door), so would probably do something similar to some plain cream curtains.
My absolute dream would be to find some (second hand) curtains which match the cushions I made for the futon (from a single curtain I had at the landing window in the old house) but that seems fairly unlikely, though I'll keep an eye out in the local charity shops in hope!