Two Pinch Pleat projects

Well, the premise of this blog is that our projects are shown mostly in the workroom, warts and all, but, I do sometimes wish I had "after" photos!  I go along on some installations, but often the products are picked up and I never see them in the homes they were designed for, and never get good photos in situ.
Here are two such projects.

Eventually I will get to the house to photograph this one.  Meanwhile, here are a few shots to show how this treatment was assembled.
These pinch pleats were fabricated from an amazing linen with a beautiful drape, at three times fullness; the lead edges are trimmed in a gorgeous woven banding.

While we've mounted plenty of inverted pleat panels to waterfall over a flat topper, this is the first time we've mounted pinch pleats over a topper.  We fitted the topper with screw eyes so the panels could hang with drapery hooks at the pleats, and added velcro so the header would fit snugly without drooping.

We used fusible velcro for the panels themselves.  I didn't realize how long that would take- 90 seconds for each little piece, holding the iron hovering over each strip- but it is very secure.  There's a half hour out of my life that I'll never get back!

I do have an after picture of this pair of side panels, for Monica Plotka Interiors, but they're wrapped up for training!  So while it shows the finished product, it's not exactly the "money shot."  However, you can see how beautifully they turned out.

Originally the plan was inverted pleats, but after mocking up and sending pictures to Monica, she decided to go with pinch pleats instead.  Inverted pleats really brought out the geometric aspect of the fabric, and it was a bit too much.

Two-finger pinch pleats were just right.

The lead edge side hems looked too plain- we needed every bit of the pattern to achieve the pattern layout- so a microcord on the hem gave a more finished look.

Drapery over Top Treatment

I am really liking this recent trend of layering drapery panels over top treatments, a reversal of what we are accustomed to seeing.  This is the third or fourth recent project with this layering arrangement.

The inverted pleat panels are finished with a mitered tacking strip so it will fit easily and with as little bulk as possible.   

To make installation as easy as possible for the installer, we prepare the boards ahead of time.  Here the valance underlayer is stapled and the board covered.  The inverted pleat panels will be stapled on-site.   The industrial strength velcro will hold the bishop-sleeve overlayer.   There is a little screw eye near the back of the board with coiled string that matches the lining of the bishop-sleeve: the string loops through the screw eye and will run down the back of the bishop-sleeve to the tassel tie-back to hold it in place.

Modern-Dreamy

Panels-over-top-treatment is a look that is new to me, and I'm totally loving it!  This is the third time this year we've done panels over, and there is another such project coming up next month.  
The faux-hobbled valance is 179" wide, hinged in the middle.  We used Firm-A-Flex for the front to keep the weight down.  Ant-trail stapling creates the folds.  (That's a lot of staples!)


 

The horizontal stripe is sophisticated and works perfectly as inverted box pleat panels, which are attached with velcro to the dustboard.  They are lined in a dusty brown super-sheer voile to give substance and soft definition to the pleats.  Everything was hand-sewn.

To keep the corner uncluttered, the adjacent window is treated with a relaxed Roman shade under the faux-hobbled valance.

An interesting variation

Valances are most often placed over drapery panels; in this unusual case, the valance is under the panels. 

It was fun figuring out the various options for the scalloped kick pleat valances to keep them in proportion with each other.

I think the valance half-sections peeking out from under the shirred panels is intriguing.  This is only the second time I've ever done valances and panels this way, and I have another job coming up soon using that concept, though it will be a very different style and context.   

The valances do not go all the way to the ends of the boards;  that allowed more flexibility in sizing the sections.  The panels were sewn with velcro shirring tape; the hook side of the velcro was stapled to the board with increments marked off so the installer and decorator could decide on-site how wide to shirr up the panels.