As promised- here are the beautiful sheer cotton-linen shades made for
Crosstown Shade and Glass. The fabrics, from
Flat Vernacular, were provided by the homeowner, who wished us to feature specific areas of these asymmetrical prints.
I started by laying the fabrics out on the table and looking down on it from a stepladder to get a good picture of the design and how best to cut it......
,,,,,guided, as mentioned, by the homeowner's notes.
These shades were lined with super-sheer voile, to keep the ethereal glow of the prints. Voile seems delicate but is actually quite tough, and with my ring-sewing method, the stress of the stitch is borne by the voile, relieving the stress on the face fabric.
For one side hem the selvedge was used in order to keep as much of the saturated area as possible.
It was fun to scrounge through my extensive thread collection to find the right colors to use in different areas of the pattern. Yeah, I said fun.
I don't know if there's a name for this knot. Because of the sheer lining, I used this method to be sure the knot would never pull through the fabric. After taking the stitch, but before pulling it tight, slip the needle through the loop below the knot....
.....and gently pull it snug. Now the knot cannot slip through the fabric. After this step the ring is sewn, taking stitches only in the voile.
The pink shade had a lot of colors so I used even more threads- all different types, chosen on the basis of color.
The top of each shade was basted at the board line before moving the shade from the table, and trimmed to the board size. This step prevents any shifting of layers while transferring the shade off the table.
The resulting shades were just as beautiful as I had imagined they'd be.
The light really affected the look of the pink shade once it was in the window.
This is inevitable with a sheer lining and a deeply saturated print, something to keep in mind when working under these circumstances.
These shades were a total success and one of the most satisfying projects of the year.
