Curtains in 2017!

For someone mainly known as a Roman shade maker, I sure have had a LOT of drapery orders these last few months.  And since I acquired a few old/new-to-me sewing machines this year, I was able to handle the volume and enjoy the process.
I still LOVE sewing draperies by hand, however!  The penultimate drapery job before Christmas break was Ripplefold for 34' of window space, and these 20 widths of fabric were entirely hemmed by hand.  Nicole Gray of Suite Dream designed the treatment with 4 panels, each using 7 yards of a double-wide poly-linen blend.  Right now the Architrac rods are visible, but soon they'll be covered with a painted cornice.   This is the installation day photo- more to come after the job is complete.

 A few days before the Ripplefold, Nicole installed these 8 banded panels for a bay and two side windows.

Appropriate fabric choice is a key element of successful draperies.  Here the woven-patterned banding fabric paired perfectly with the medium-weight poly-linen blend.

The hems were pressed into the face fabric before the widths were joined, eliminating the need to table the bottom separately.

I'm loving my newly acquired machines!  From the straight stitch machine, the fabric moved to the new/old super-fast Rimoldi for the raw edges to be overlocked......

 .....then down the line to the blindhemmer for the bottom hems.

The banding fabric was basted in place with Dofix's Bortenfix K basting adhesive before sewing to keep it from shifting.  The banding was sewn at the 4" line so it could be wrapped with a full 4" on the back as well.  Although I'm showing the photo here, the banding was actually the first thing done, even before the widths were joined.  That meant less bulk to handle while sewing the band.

 I worked in pairs so I'd be sure not to make a mistake and make more lefts than rights.  The first panel took longer than it should have because I hadn't developed a method yet.  After the first one I realized I'd save time by doing as much of the bottom corner as possible before laying in the lining.  The edge was pressed, the bottom trimmed, and the panel laid into the Drawmatic clamp bar with the corner kept free.  The hemline of the band fabric was kept loose and unpressed, so the bottom line could be manipulated a bit in case there was take-up.

I shifted the corner onto the table so I could work with it more easily.  The corner weight was tag-gunned in place.

The band is folded up....

Tucked in...... (the first 4" of hem was left unstitched to allow for this step).......

And re-positioned under the clamp.

The lead edge was folded, pressed, and pinned after laying in the napped sateen lining.

The bottom corners were pinned in place.  The lead edges, with the banding, were sewn by hand, and the return edges were machine blindhemmed.

My favorite thread for hand-sewing side hems is Silamide thread.  It doesn't tangle, it glides easily, and has just a wee bit of give that keeps the seams from clenching up.   I use a single thread for most hemming, but for drapery bottom and top corners I double the thread.

The bay window panels had two lead edges with banding, for a total of 8 panels, 13 widths, and 10 lead edges.

Quite an adventure!  These 43 widths were made in addition to a set of sheer pinch pleat (14 widths), two pairs of lined and interlined top tack with decorative tape (6 widths), and two pairs of sheer lined with sheer top tack (6 widths).  A total of 69 widths in the 10 days before closing for Christmas break!  All side hems were machine blind-hemmed except for the ripplefold above, and the 10 banded lead edges.
Not shown: low-bulk method for tabling the tops, and the pleats being tacked with my new/old Chandler tacker- a super-time-saver!

Double Banding on panels.....

Another lovely drapery treatment from SuElyn Chase of Cottages to Castles:

Trims are all about context.  If you only see the face fabric, you will wonder why the blue is there- until you see the treatment in the room.  The blue ties it all together, beautifully.



The blue banding fabric is tripled to be sure there are no marks from seam allowances.





We basted the layers together to keep it all flat and neat and tight.

Beautiful, fat, interlined Euro pleats are hand-tacked around the fronts of the pleats- my favorite method.

Grey is the new............

How do you spell "grey/gray?"  Grey is the British and UK spelling, in use since the AD700s.  Gray is the American spelling since around 1825.  I have always spelled it "grey" which I suppose reflects my reading habits- I've been steeped in 19th century British literature for years.

Anyhow, I've been seeing a whole lot of grey recently.  I guess grey is the new.......... sage?  khaki?  It's most often blended with pale natural or ivory, or sometimes more dusky naturals like sand or mink, with a pop of something hot and brilliant, like orange or mustard or fuschia.
 

For this client, nearly everything we made included a variation of cool grey.  The color-block silk taffeta draperies for the living room and dining room pair grey with two different shades of ivory, divided by that thoroughly modern sequined band from Samuel and Sons. 

The grey is on the lower third of the nine-foot panels, finished in ivory with two-finger top-tack pleats.

In the master bedroom, heavy Donghia silk shades are interlined with black flannel to help reduce pattern wash-out in the sun.  Everyone who saw these shades up close immediately said "Rorschach test!" 

They are spectacular.  From a greater distance the geometric pattern becomes clearer.  Hope to see post-installation pics one of these days!

Two Fab Fabrics

One is an amazing soft wool paisley, the other is.... I have no idea what.  It feels like.... plastic macrame?  But it's not plastic, because it ironed beautifully.

The wool became a relaxed Roman shade.

It's trimmed with a loop fringe layered over white grosgrain.

The mesh fabric became long drapery panels, which I wish I had seen on-site, but alas I only saw them here.  But the homeowner and decorator flipped over them!  They called twice to say how happy they were.  All hand-sewn of course, except for the actual pleats.  The picture does not do them any kind of justice.  The top-tacked heading has translucent buckram.

Khaki chain weight in the bottom is thanks to Kelly from Scarlet Poppy Interiors in Texas who saved the day!  I tried to order it from Rowley but it is on backorder.  Kelly responded to my plea on the CHF Forum.

And that wasn't all.  We made Roman shades too out of the mesh.  Here they are not hiding the shelves full of supplies and tools.  They are reverse-mounted, but we didn't have to make a self-fabric valance because they went under cornices.

The best part was, we didn't have to put in grommets- just ran the matching tan string through the mesh!

Top tack variation and faux fur

Our contributions to this "bonus" room are the sheer curtains, which were shown a few weeks ago in the process of being French seamed, and the faux fur and woven zebra pillows.

Because of this bouncy sheer and the very flexible clear buckram, these top tacks are a variation on our regular top tack style.  They needed another tack in the center at the bottom of the buckram, to keep the fabric from blousing out.  The tops of the pleats needed to be sewn all the way across to keep the buckram from slipping down in the back. 

Faux fur was flying while these were being sewn.  I think I breathed in as much as I eventually vacuumed up.  Amazingly, I managed to get zippers into these, and close them! 

You've been thinking, Deb's been awfully lazy lately.  Au contraire- I've been forgetting to photograph work before it leaves the studio!  And I haven't had the chance to attend installations in order to photograph work on-site.  Nevertheless, I do have a few tidbits.

Great colors!

And there were two of these.

More great color, in dupioni silk for top-tack interlined draperies.

Color on the menu still on a lumbar pillow.

This may not look like much on hangers in my messy studio, but here hang thirty-four panels, each 134" long, for the backdrop for a product promotional event at Sephora in Soho this Friday for Fashion's Night Out- the city-wide Fashion Week kick-off. 

Linen Drapery Installed!

Some years ago, at the fabulous Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown NY, I saw a demonstration of dried flax stalks being turned into linen fiber, by hand.  It gave me insight into linen fabric I would never have had otherwise.
(I'm dying to get back to the museum... if you ever have the chance, be sure to check it out.)
The tall stalks go through a five-step process to prepare it for spinnning, delightfully called rippling, retting, scutching, grassing, and hackling.  First, they are combed to remove seeds and leaves, then soaked, then dried.  Then they are beaten, and the stalks separate out into long individual strands, and then they are put through a fine comb to create yarns for spinning.
The resulting yarns and eventual fabrics contain all the irregularities of the original plant stalk, which is why linen has a "memory" and does not retain a pressing.
Linen fiber is one of the strongest, which is why it can be combed into extremely slender yarns for fine linen like lace, bedding, and table linens.   Linen also is lint free which makes it perfect for kitchen dishtowels.
Seeing the linen yarn appear before my eyes at the demonstration at the Farmers' Museum was one of those "aha!" moments for me.  It was like magic, and I don't look at fabric in the same way since. 

Yesterday we installed these interlined linen draperies- they were incredibly heavy!  The linen is rough and irregular.  I was fascinated by how the fibers' appearance changed when the sun shone through it.  Flat on the worktable, it was a dull, consistent off-white, but when the sun shone through it was warm and golden.  The jute and cotton banding was a nice complement.

A Totally Satisfying Installation

Top tack unlined sheers

The first fold is basted to keep it from drooping since it's so wide

Today's installation was one of the rare ones that I could walk away from totally satisfied that there is nothing I would have done differently!

These unlined semi-sheer striped draperies are all hand-sewn, with top tack pleats and just a little break at the floor.

The light and dark sections are equal in width at 4 7/8".  We debated how to lay out the stripes, finally choosing to keep the darker stripe in the back and on the lead and return edges, and the lighter stripe to the front, pleated; this made the fullness 2x.

I thought the lead edges and return edges should be hemmed along the edge of the full stripe, as opposed to a regular 1 1/2" side hem.  That meant doubling 4 7/8" and I was worried the first fold would droop inside the side hem, unless it was secured.  So before making the second turn, the fabric was basted with long stitches on the inside and just 1/4" to the front, which is pretty much invisible.

The little narrow shiny white woven stripe dividing the wide stripe provided the perfect place to secure the hem stitching so that it's not visible at all.

The effect is a totally smooth lead edge with no stitching showing, and a nice soft padded feel thanks to the wide, doubled side hem.

And the best part of the lead edges is that the little white woven line is at the very edge.  I love how that looks!

Translucent buckram in the heading gives a clean but fluid line.

The second fold is hand-hemamed along the little woven line.

The shades were sewn by hand, too.  I love how on their 1" boards they just fit under the rough-hewn beam that serves as a sort of cornice.

The fabric is 118" wide, railroaded.
For the 74" long shades, all 118" was used, which means that there is more than 36" extra in length, tied up with 7 rings.  That is a lot of bottom fullness!- but for this drapey fabric, it's perfect.

The room pictures, below, show the three walls of draperies and shades.

The relaxed Roman shades are very full at the bottom.