Reconstructive Surgery

Katherine Stern and I had to take some liberties with this Designers Guild print in order to fit it onto the 45" wide shades.

It started life as a 54" wide fabric.  To use it as it was printed would have meant cutting off the design in an awkward spot on each side, so we decided to slice out the center border, and reduce some of the blank space on the sides.

Once we had that center border it seemed obvious to use it as a bottom band.  I split it to make a mirror image.

Katherine chose the topmost motif and I worked from the top down.  We mocked it up on the table first.

I stitched the bottom band to the face and pressed it down.....

Then folded under the bit of white at the bottom, topstitched it down......

Then folded it up on the yellow line so the excess white was on the back.

Katherine requested a softer, slightly puffier look than usual, so we chose Domette interlining for fat, soft folds.

The weight bar was tucked in under the side hems and secured.

There was little fabric for side hems, so the color bar shows partly, and I happen to think that is extra cool.

The shades look fantastic raised to any height.