Re-purposing

Sometimes you have to abandon your standard fabrication practices in order to achieve your goal.  Monica wanted four Roman shades...

to be made from the customer's existing rod pocket curtains.

The first project was to see if it could be done: the curtains are made from a beautiful linen sheer, but there were various pulls, tears, and stains to cut around, like the one below.

We just made it- that stain is 1/2" from the top edge- but to do so, we turned the fabric upside down and made the hem serve as the weight bar pocket, because the rod pocket top was crumpled from being gathered on the pole, and though it ironed beautifully, creases like that just wouldn't come out well enough to serve as the top- and focal point- of the shade.

The gridded canvas table makes projects with sheers go more quickly and more accurately.  You just line up the grainline with the printed lines.

It was impossible to pick out the original pocket stitching, so I just left it in, inserted a covered weight bar, folded the hem, and hand-sewed it all loosey-goosey so it wouldn't pull.  Not the standard practice, but it was the only way to make this job work.

Ladder tape in this soft gold blended perfectly with the fabric.

I keep it in these three colors, plus natural:

There was JUST enough fabric to make one permanent fold at the bottom, to hide all the weight bar and pocket stuff.