Re-purposing

We've spent considerable time in the house with the huge hobbled shades for Denise Wenacur, and last week it was time to go upstairs to the master bedroom, where we re-purposed the homeowners' existing window treatments.

Crown molding was added, so for two windows, the draperies needed shortening. 

And the turret had a full set of draperies until the seating area was built, so they were re-made into Roman shades, the band and rope lead edge detail transformed into bottom shade detail.

Ribs ensure that the folds do not need dressing, a helpful feature in shades that are mounted high and are not so easy to reach.  We sew, rather than glue, ribs onto interlining in between the rings so the folds will have some rigidity.

Dofix 6" fusible buckram provided support for the bottom banding.

Re-purposing generally involves some improvisation, to make the existing materials work for the new application.  In this instance, we had to fiddle a bit to make the banding work.  Although we usually make a double bottom hem, the banding was just wide enough to create a single hem, so Dofix Bortenfix was used to secure the hem below the weight bar pocket......

then Dofix fusible gimp covered the raw edge.  The rings were sewn through all materials so the stitching would provide extra security for  the band and the gimp.

After the weight bar was inserted into the pocket, the gimp end was tucked in and secured....

Then the bottom pocket ladderstitched closed.

Dofix 8" fusible buckram gave body to the topper, which I wanted to be somewhat supported but not quite as rigid as a soft cornice.  We mitered the top and fused Dofix velcro to the back edge so the topper could be mounted easily on installation day.

Fabric staples secured the fabric layers at the top......

and because these shades are reverse mounted, Dofix fusible velcro was added to the front.

The shade snaps off of the headrail for easy installation, then just as easily snapped back on.  The lift system is the Rollease SS38 from Designers Resource, chosen for its awesome gear ratio that allows this shade to be nearly fully raised with just one pull of the continuous bead loop chain. 

The little toppers behaved just as I wanted them to.

Ta-da!  (and yes, we fabricated those cushions, too.)

Details on the 158" shade

There's a lot of detail I'd like to share about the 158" shade featured in last Friday's post.

The fabric was railroaded- it wasn't perfectly symmetrical in both directions, but nearly, and the repeat was small in either case, so I thought it would be best to have no visible seams.  Instead, we seamed it horizontally and hid the seam under a fold.  Figuring out the logistics was trickier than I thought it would be!  Luckily I got it right, whew.  The repeat is just 4.5" so the folds are a little smaller and closer together than I usually plot for hobbled shades.

I did catch a break on marking the fabric for sewing the tape and rings.  I used a lovely double-wide cotton sateen from Hanes, and could just see through it enough to make the marks by pattern instead of having to measure.  THAT was a huge plus- it not only saved time, but also assured accuracy.  I took this photo of the first shade as pattern placement reference for the following two.

The Rollease Skyline clutch on a 1.5" tube provided a strong lift system.  After using this tube a lot recently for both clutch AND spring lift systems, I think I will now remember without having to look it up: screw eyes for clutch, NO screw eyes for spring.

Another thing I think I finally will remember without having to look it up: for reverse mount hobbled shades, DO NOT put the grommet through the tape!  I had to wiggle the tape free out of every grommet in order to make slight adjustments to the board line.  I also finally got smart while making the adjustments and instead of unstapling, I used a blunt instrument to nudge a bit of lining upward and stapled it to the back of the board.

Did you see what tool I'm using there?  It's our new Milwaukee cordless, battery-operated staple gun!  My hands are no longer able to operate an old-fashioned manual staple gun, and the shade was too far away for the compressor hose, so this new toy I mean tool came in very handy!

The tube, at 158", was too long to safely use without support.  Luckily Rollease has introduced a splice- the Easy-Link.  This allows the tube to be split in half and spliced, with the splice doing double duty as a support bracket.

For a fail-safe during transportation, we used cable tie mounts at each end of each tube, just in case the tube came out of the bracket.  It can't fall far, because it's all strung up to the shade, but it saved some annoyance when it DID happen and we needed to put it back together.  Please note: we snipped the cable ties loose once the shade was installed, because they would add resistance to the lift if they stayed in place.
There are two types of cable tie mounts: one is all in one piece; the other sticks on then you secure it with a screw- that's the one we wound up using.

Oh, and another thing.  If you read the previous post, you might remember that the soft cornices didn't quite fit in the corner, and I had to take them back to adjust the ends.  I made a piece of welting on "wings" with velcro, and velcroed it in between where the new ends met.  I forgot to take a photo of the welt with wings, sorry.

I wish I could say that the pattern flowed around the corner because of meticulous planning, but really it was serendipity that the pattern on the two ends created a near match.  Sometimes luck is better than skill!

It WAS skill, however, and not a bit of luck involved, that the pattern matched preciselty from the soft cornice to the shade!  And I'll gladly take full credit for THAT, as well as the perfect pleat-to-pattern :)

158" wide hobbled shade!

Oversize continues to be a trend here! 
After the 350# of shades, before the Norovirus hit in full force, I worked on three hobbled shades for Denise Wenacur.  Two were 120"- those were the small ones.  The big one was 158"- over 13'.  Then I got really sick for real, and had to postpone the installation for a week.  We finally got there, only to find that the household AND their renovation contractor also had been stricken with Norovirus that same week! 

I'll write a more detailed post next week, but I've had such a rough time this year keeping up with this blog, I didn't want to wait any longer to show a peek of the product and process.
It was a bear to sew- it was both longer and wider than my table- but although this might look like uncontrolled chaos, there actually is order to the mess.

The trusswork John built for oversize shades was just big enough to hold the 158" shade!

We learned A LOT during the fabrication and rigging with the lovable Rollease 1.5" tube clutch lift system.  Though we've used them before, this one was the biggest ever, and I'll detail the process in the next post.  I was grateful to have a way to hang the shade to trouble-shoot and dress it in the workroom instead of at the customer's home.

Not everything went perfectly smoothly on installation day- I had to take back the two soft cornices that met in the far corner, because I hadn't made the right allowance for them to meet. 

It wasn't hard to modify the soft cornices.  We returned the next day to re-install,  in plenty of time for a birthday celebration party!  I was happy we didn't have to leave the room unfinished.

Stay tuned, I'll get to the nitty-gritty next week!

84" tieback

The story of the 84" tieback is the third installment of the oversize ripplefold project for Crosstown Shade and Glass.    Though it looks simple, it was anything but- to create the smooth, sleek crescent I envisioned, I decided to hand-sew it.

The first step was getting the correct proportions.  Obviously if the panel was just 8' long, the tieback would've been much narrower.  Steve from Crosstown measured and determined that the wide point should be 8" and taper down to 4" ends.

It was up to me to draft the boat-shaped pattern.  The tieback was 84" wide in all,  and the fabric widths were joined so the seam would be in the back.  This was the only machine sewing.

I thought that buckram was necessary to help the tieback keep its shape, and I also knew that machine-sewing right sides together and turning was not going to give me the sleekness I envisioned, so I made the tieback sort of like I make a soft cornice, layering the face fabric, interlining and Skirtex. 

The interlining was trimmed close to the buckram, the curves were clipped in the face fabric, and Jewel tape applied to the buckram.

The face fabric was folded over, secured with the tape, then gently steamed into shape.

The self lining was layered on, the raw edges turned under leaving a little edge that I could sew to.  Then the entire perimeter of the tieback was hand-sewn with tiny ladder stitches to secure the self lining to the face.

This gave me exactly the look I wanted to achieve.

I think it's perfect :)

Another soft cornice and another new method

I was so emboldened by my recent soft cornice experiences that I said yes to this treatment as a soft cornice with the shaped bottom and lip cord.  The designer, fellow Ossining-ite Elizabeth Harlow, provided a perfect template- so I had no drafting to do- just had to trace and cut.

In the front hallway

I used a combination of old-fashioned and new-fangled techniques.  (I love doing that!)   The treatment is made on two layers of Skirtex with interlining on top and Bella Notte Silky blackout on the back.  Lip cord traces and enhances the bottom silhouette.

For the shaped bottom, I used three methods: Rowley's fringe glue, double-sided sticky tape, and hand-sewing.  I did not feel comfortable with the curves and cutouts without reinforcing by sewing with an invisible ladder stitch. 

Once all the trim and all the layers were joined, I finished the bottom back with Dofix iron-on gimp.  What a treat that stuff is!!!!

Then, the real fun happened with the return.  The board was cut 1/2" less than the finished width.  For the returns I used 1/4" hardwood, 3.5" wide, which I get from Home Depot, and cut it the finished length.  The fabric was cut on the sides with 2x the return extra.  I slipped the 1/4" board into the return hem:

Folded the fabric over:

Then folded it again:

And secured it tightly at the top.  These steps took a little more fiddling than it looks, but, believe me, it was incredibly easy compared to any other way I've ever tried making a rigid return on a soft treatment.

Then I stapled it to the board:

Put a few more staples to secure the return:

And finished the dustcover.

Lastly, I hand-sewed the bottom of the return to tighten it up:

I'm thrilled with this neat, clean corner that is stable and secure without having to build a frame with attached legs!

For anyone seeking full instructions on soft cornice fabrication, I recommend any one of the following: Jo Braxton Thomas , Donna Skufis, and Rowley Company. All have excellent methods and instructions.