Motorized hobbled shade project

Here is a challenging project- 6 side-by-side hobbled shades with a distinctive printed fabric.

This project was designed by Susan Marocco Interiors, and motorization was expertly accomplished by Joe of All Systems Go.

The pattern layout and the pleats had to be very precisely planned and fabricated  to ensure continuity once the shades were hung.  Luckily this Harlequin fabric was expertly printed and pattern drift was nearly nonexistent- a big deal these days, when so many patterns are printed off grain.  Here you can see by comparing the owls that the pattern is off by barely 1/4" from one side to the other.  

Before sending the shades to be motorized they were hung in the workroom to make sure everything lined up correctly.  Any discrepancies were easily fixed by adjusting the encased cord tape from Rowley which served as the hobbling tape as well as the shroud.

With a 27" pattern repeat, half of the birds on the fabric are hidden in the folds of the hobbled shades, so I used some of the hidden birds in the backdrop section of the valances.

The valance body is just a rectangle with a gentle bottom curve, a little wider than the area covered to give the droop; the width was determined by draping a piece of chain weight so the backdrop would have the right amount of exposure.  The tapered horn is from the M'Fay Imperial valance pattern.  Little double jabots were velcroed into the corners after the boards were up.

The skinny bows are made of two pieces- the long main piece and a little cinch with a tail.  The bow was lifted up and the tail of the cinch stapled to the board face.....

then the bow was flipped back down and secured with a staple snuck in under the cinch.

The shades have three settings- fully lowered, middle of the window, and fully raised.   A lot of hard work paid off with a job that was very satisfying in the end.