Pied-a-terre shades and pillows

Where to start after not posting for 3 weeks?  Shall I bore you with stories about the dead car battery in NYC; the equipment failures: band saw, Dofix boiler?  The unexpected modifications, re-stringings, repairs; and 5 installations in 2 days?............ nah. 
Instead, I'll show you my favorite project from these challenging few weeks.

Arielle of Paris Interiors designed this oasis in Greenwich Village.  The black and white scheme is unbroken except for the brick wall, and is restful in the most modern way.

 

I enjoyed every aspect of fabrication of the Missoni sheer shades and the 11 pillows using 12 different fabrics. 

The sheer was a special challenge.  The pattern match was about 5" in from the selvedge, and I didn't think I could accurately join the widths by machine.  Instead, I basted then hand-sewed the seams using a ladder stitch.

I flat-felled the seam by pressing it, but did not sew it. 

After tabling the face fabric and laying out the double-wide semi-sheer lining, I lock-stitched the sheer to the edges before folding and pressing the hem into place.  This is a technique I learned from Penny Bruce of Denton Drapes (albeit in reference to interlined English curtains!) adapted to my own fabrication process.

I intentionally made the side hem wide enough to reach the face seam.  As I ladder-stitched the hem, the thread caught the felled seam to secure the fabric.

 

The rest of the shade fabrication followed my standard procedure for sheer shades, stabilizing the bottom with translucent buckram, and enclosing the weight bar pocket into the hem.  You can see one of the three horizontal basting lines I ran before beginning to sew the rings. 

This is one of my top three favorite projects of the year so far!