Fab Fabric Friday, and Keeping it Simple

My friend Josh is a master at knowing how to showcase a brilliant fabric, like this Schumacher embroidered sheer linen, shown here with a dark backdrop.

The normal instinct would be to run the wide striped motif vertically......

but the client wanted a horizontal stripe.  Josh chose flat valances, his restrained taste bringing out the best in this lovely fabric by keeping it simple.

We railroaded the fabric, cutting the bottom along the scallop, and using a portion of the embroidery at the top for balance and finishing.

The back of the scallop is finished with a sheer binding rolled to the back as a skinny facing.

The bias strip was sewn to the face fabric before the scallop shape was cut:

Then trimmed, and the curves clipped:

The strip was pressed down....

Then to the back, rolled, and pinned.....

Finally, machine topstitched.

  I thought it would have needed to be hand-sewn, but actually the topstitching was unobtrusive, added the illusion of a little bulk, and turned the facing into a design element.