Hanging textiles

Katherine Stern's client picked up three woven hangings while traveling in Thailand, and Katherine thought they would be perfect hanging in the newly repainted two-story foyer.  Originally she planned to hang them from a bamboo rod, but on her own recent trip to southeast Asia, Katherine found these three bamboo hangers and lugged them home for this project.  My job was to prepare the tapestries for hanging.

We laid the pieces out in the studio to see how they worked most effectively.  The brilliant hues are typical of Katherine's exuberant color style.

We agreed that the fringed end should be turned down to serve as a sort of valance.

I wrapped the hangers with sticky-back velcro, candy-cane style; this keeps the velcro from peeling off as it ages.




The fabric was very fragile, and the fibers wanted to stick and pull every time it came near the velcro.  I realized it needed protection and reinforcement.  A trip to Joann fabrics turned up perfectly matching quilt-weight cotton, which turned into a sort of underskirt for the flaps. 

Self-lined underskirts were put in place, and two rows of velcro sewn on- a row for the hanger top, and one for the back.












A hanger is positioned along the velcro row for the back.;

and the fabric carefully, very carefully squeezed through the opening and pressed into place along the top row of velcro.

The double layered underskirt adds substance and shape to the fringed valance, as well as protects the tapestry from the velcro.