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Thursday, September 12, 2013

Swag variation- straight bottom- and a "duh" moment!

Recreating window treatments from a photograph is sometimes part of the workroom's job.  Sometimes we have design input, but sometimes we are required to simply make what is ordered.
I was asked to duplicate a swag with a flat, straight bottom, that was seen in a magazine.  After much experimenting, I developed this mock-up.  I based the swag specs on that bottommost fold, using Ann Johnson's swag book.  I pretended that was the swag silhouette, and then left a lot of excess fabric, which I cut away to get the shape I sought.
Postscript *** Here's the "duh" moment: Now I am realizing that I basically was creating a variation of an Empire valance.  Those straight sides are where horns would be sewn to an Empire.***
I was so surprised when I unstapled the mockup- for the bottom to appear practically straight, the bottom edge actually is a concave curve.  This is the weirdest swag pattern I've ever made!

The real fabric is a plaid, however, and I didn't want the bottom edge to be cut off-pattern, so on this one point I compromised and cut it straight on the bottom, which meant the sides raised up a little higher than wished, but I didn't think the alternative would've been attractive at all.  Here it is before pleating..... strange, huh!
Postscript *** and now that I've had my "duh" moment, I see that it's just a very big Empire swag, with separate jabots instead of attached horns! ***
Ta-da!  The final product.  The swag dimensions, as well as the jabot style, short point, long point, and face width, were all specified by the client to be based on the very fuzzy photocopy of a photograph.
Postscript *** Well, if I had recognized this treatment as a wide Empire, I still would have had to draft a pattern from scratch, but it might have been easier if I had visualized this pattern shape in the first place. ***

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