Hybrid shades

These are the widest I've ever made this hybrid shade, a cross between a London and a relaxed shade..  London shades droop too much in the center to be used on wide windows, but with the addition of a lift line in the center section, the long point is controlled.
If this style had a center pleat, it would simply be a balloon shade with tails, or a double London shade.  

This woven upholstery weight fabric is French blackout lined.
The railroaded fabric is pattern-matched at the pleats.  With a 14" repeat,  that is a LOT of fabric in each pleat.
These shades are quite heavy, but stationary.  Their success lies in the beautiful dressing at the installation.

Blind hemming

When I started out as a full-time workroom, I didn't know that there were workrooms where people actually used needle and thread to sew.  I thought everything in a proper workroom was done by machine.  Thank goodness I soon learned differently!  Sixteen years later, I've come to love sewing by hand, both for the superior results and the satisfying sense of process.
That being said, there are times when hand-sewing, while delightful, is just unnecessary because the result will be in no way superior to the machine sewn version.
So a couple of years ago I bought a blind-hemmer.  When I started out, I subbed out all of my drapery orders, so I had little need for a blind-hemmer.  Now, I do make some drapery, but what I make here is always and only by hand, so I still don't need the blind hemmer for panels.  The same goes for my Roman shades: they are made on the table, by hand, and don't leave the table until they are on the boards. 
However, I find plenty of other time-saving uses for it.  It is invaluable for bedskirts, a few valance applications, and, sometimes, relaxed, London, or balloon shades.
It made short work of this interlined London shade.

I assembled the shade on the table.  The linings were laid in, hems folded, and rings and ladder tape sewn, all on the table, the bottom left unfinished.

The top and bottom were basted across by hand and trimmed.

A quick trip to the blind-hemmer finished off the side hems.

Back at the Juki, the brush fringe was sewn on, and then a facing of the moire, and, yes, I forgot to take a picture of sewing on the facing!

You'll just have to imagine the part where I sewed on the facing, which was made from a strip of fabric, folded in half, sewn over the fringe seam allowance, and pressed up to meet the bottommost rings.  Then that, too, went to the blindhemmer.  The ends were slipstitched together for a clean bottom finish.

And that blind-hemmer saved me probably the amount of time that it took to write up this post :)

Applique sheer shades

I've been wanting to write up this post for months, and this long weekend seems like a good time to do it. 
It's taken me so long because I did not take enough pictures during the fabrication.  We were spending our time trying to figure out an effective method so I mostly forgot about photos.  So, here I am, and I'm going to work on it while I watch old Dr. Who episodes.

My client chose this Pierre Frey applique fabric for four pairs of drapery panels, and asked us to cut out the pieces of the motif and re-applique them to a sheer linen to create London shades underneath.

There were an awful lot of pieces to each motif, some with inner cutouts.

Wonder Under was the perfect product for this project.  I ironed it onto the back side of the fabric area that I wanted to cut out.  The blue satin stitch outlining each piece actually made it easier to do the cutting.  A little snip scissor got into the cutout areas.  It took about an hour for each of the four shades just to do the cutting.

After cutting out all the pieces and peeled off the paper backing, I recreated the layout on the linen sheer, using a tracing underneath as a template, then pressed the pieces in place.  I don't have a photo of the paper tracing; I drew it on graph paper with black Sharpie and then turned it upside down so the black wouldn't come off on the sheer.   

I held it up to the light- and right off the bat I could see that it was spectacular!  Any skepticism I had had about the project instantly disappeared.
The next step was to sew the applique.  Each piece was hand-sewn to the linen sheer by Camille, my amazing hand-sewing expert friend- and it was just as lengthy a process as you probably imagine.   I don't remember exactly but I think each shade took 3 hours of hand-sewing, and that's before making the shade itself!

Now to turn it into a shade.  I made a mockup of the actual shade-to-be out of lining, and pinned a plastic tracing of the motif over the shade so we could determine placement while the mockup hung in the client's window.

We chose this more old-fashioned style of London shade in order to keep the fullness down and also to keep the tails from drooping longer than the center.  This London shade style uses single or knife pleats instead of double or inverted box pleats.  It creates a more compact silhouette.

The final shades had the exact shape I had mocked up- yay!

After they were installed I realized that they needed top welting to fill in the small gap between the fabric and the window frame.  I went back to the house with some ivory welting already made up, took the shades down, and applied the welting with double-sided tape.  I don't think you can even see it in the pictures.  But I know it's there.
The draperies are made with two-finger French pleats, three inches long. 
Next time I'm back at this home, I'll take pictures of the fabulous custom-made hardware that the homeowner designed to meet a particular challenge: because the walls are Venetian plaster, the brackets had to be installed on the molding.  Her solution to get the draperies up and out is brilliant- more on that another time!

Repurposing

The original two Londons.....

There is a lot of "re-purposing" going on these days!  and why not?  if you can re-use treatments that you love when you move, or for a different room when redecorating, you can save a lot of money on new materials.
Nicole Gray's client moved house, and we combined her two interlined London shades into one for her daughter's new room with a larger window.  We had just enough of the green fabric to make a new header; otherwise the measurements worked out just perfectly.  We were able to remove one contrast pleat, join the sections and the ruffled trim, and do a little nudging and fudging to make it fit the new dustboard.  It was all surprisingly simple.

Now they are one!

The kitchen in the old house had a smaller window and a larger window.  We had made Kingston valances mounted on small covered boards.
Now, the new kitchen has two same sized windows.  We took two sections off of the larger valance and added them onto the smaller valance, and Nicole raised the center sections on the sink window to fill in that awkward space above the top of the cabinets.  A little poetic license was taken to join the sections, but it turned out great.

London shades, pattern, and arithmetic

We had a wonderful opportunity to fabricate some valances for a blog reader in California!  She fell in love with some London shades she saw here; chose her fabric and trim; shipped it to NY; and we made them.

After the main body of the shade was assembled, with the microcorded contrast pleats and the bottom brush fringe, the header was created.   After the pleats were basted in place, the first row of welt was attached and the seam trimmed.

 The header was first glue-basted to ensure a perfect pattern match.

 Fusible buckram helped the header keep its shape.

The top row of welt was attached after the valance was stapled to the board.

The header was lined separately, more like a facing I suppose.  The back is nice and neat.

The big deal with these valances was mathematical.  It was important to match the pattern horizontally, across the swoop and tails; vertically, from the valance to the header; and most difficult, from one valance to the other.  The tails needed to center the same section, which at first seemed absolutely impossible.   However, in the end, after a lot of head-scratching and experimentation, I got those numbers crunched to my satisfaction.  Though there's a slight difference in the pattern on the small valance tails and the large valance tails, the eye is pretty much tricked into seeing it all the same.

I'm pretty happy with these valances! 

Special touches.....

Layers of pattern distinguish this nursery: wallpaper, embroidered linen sheer, and embroidered silk.

London shades serve as toppers for operable linen sheer relaxed romans.
(Please note: after these photos were taken, hold-downs for the bead loop chains were installed!!!)
The subdued lighting created by the fabrics makes this room feel like the perfect place to escape the summer heat, with a book, some iced tea, and a few extra minutes for napping.

The next two photos are over-exposed, so the details are easier to see.

The double London shade on this short, wide window needed special attention to proportion.  

Because the windowss are next to the crib, extra steps were taken to ensure that the shades are ultra-safe.  Originally posted last June, you can read here about how we encased the cord in a sheer shroud that was fully sewn shut so there would be no possible way to reach the cords.

On the right, the angled ceiling cut into the board line, so we made an angled dustboard, naturally!

Another special touch was a little leaf applique from the linen sheer on the inside of the silk shade.  Chances are nobody will notice it, but I know it's there!

Since the sheer linen was unlined, the bottom rings were reinforced with a little scrap, to strengthen the fabric under the stitch.

Installation day!

I can't believe all of last week went by without a single post.  Things were really hopping.  Friday was the culmination of much of the week's work, with the installation of these wonderful window treatments.
The guest house main floor is all open, so all treatments are visible with no walls in between.
In the living room, four mock hobbled valances, which I learned to make from Ann Johnson's webinar, are perfect- vertically, the pattern flows naturally, and horizontally, marches around the room very impressively.

On the other side are soft cornices for the kitchen- I pulled out Donna Skufis's video to refresh my memory on how to fabricate this style.

And in between, a London valance as soon as you come in the front door, unifies everything.  I posted a workroom shot of this valance last week.  The pink geometric of the soft cornices is used on this valance as contrast pleat inserts and microcord.

You might remember previous posts about the mockups/samples I made in preparation for the mock hobbled valances and the soft cornices.  The mock hobbled sample was indispensable to understanding how to work with the pattern on the real thing.  

For the four valances, the ikat-look China Seas fabric was railroaded.  I was thrilled with how well the pattern lined up!  Four valances around the room was pretty impressive. 

The soft cornice mockup was equally invaluable.

I learned that I needed to reinforce the fabric with fusible stabilizer (from Rowley) to support the diagonal cuts that go directly into each internal corner, right down to the quick!  Scary!

I was able to get very neat corners.

Often, simple is awesome.
For a very tall window in a narrow space, this plain, tailored valance is 24" long.

The Greek key trim is all it needs.