Super-fun fabrics

I love the trusswork John built for hanging and leveling our shades! 
Take a good look at it, because tomorrow I'll show an alternative use for the apparatus.
The following shades, for Crosstown Shade and Glass, are blackout with our special no-pinholes-of-light method.  This sunny yellow with appliqued circles and embroidery was fun to work with.  At first we thought there was no way we would be able to join the widths and get a good pattern match, but once we saw the trick to the match, it was easy. 

Are those folds pleated to pattern??- ah, uh, um, YES!  Of course.   And the 4" padded fascia is pattern matched to the shade.

 

All of our blackout shades have internal ribs.  They prevent the folds from losing their definition, and prevent the homeowner from losing her mind, since she won't have to dress these folds every time the shade is raised.

This whimsical embroidery was equally delightful to work with.

Again with the pleat to pattern.... in this case, every other fold matches.  We assess the pattern repeat to determine if we can match every fold, every other, or every third.  In fact, I'm presenting a live webinar in June (to the WCAA Virtual Chapter) on this very subject.  Once you get used to pleating to pattern, whether on shades or draperies, you won't go back to random!

The attention to detail is especially effective with side-by-side identical shades.  I love how the pattern flows from the fascia to the shade. 

Flat-back blackout reverse mount hobbled shades

Flat-back blackout reverse mount hobbled shades.  That's a mouthful, right?

It's important to remember, when talking about "blackout" lining, that it is the LINING that is blackout, and not the TREATMENT.  The lining is blackout, but the treatment is ROOM-DIMMING.  The only real blackout treatment would be plywood nailed over the window.  Just about any window treatment will have points of light bleed.
Even this three-layer blackout treatment from a few years ago- blackout drapery, shade, and cornice- allowed some light bleed.

For that reason, room-darkening is a big issue in the shade fabrication world.  There are two sticking points with shades: one is the "pinholes of light" that are the consequence of stitching- the needle pierces the black inner layer of the lining and the tiny holes let light through.  The other issue is the "light bleed" from the sides of shades, whether inside or outside mounted.

For this project with Denise Wenacur, we wanted to make outside mounted room-darkening hobbled shades.  Hobbled shades eliminate the pinholes of light problem because the row stitching is hidden by the "hobbles".  The light bleed at the sides, however, is enhanced because the hobbles stand out from the vertical plane of the back of the shade, like this hobbled shade we made last summer:

We decided to make flat-back hobbled shades.  The flat back and the reverse mount allows the shade to hug the wall as closely as possible, minimizing the light gap.

When raised, the flat back folds up with the hobbles:

I hadn't made a flat-back functioning shade in a very long time, so I was feeling my way for this project.
I fused a coordinating lining to "Silky" blackout lining (from Angels Distributing) but in retrospect, next time I'd order a color-coordinated blackout lining and use it alone.  I marked the horizontal rows before taking it off the table to prepare the face.

For the face fabric, I made a mockup out of the cutoffs from the sides.  I was able to work with the pattern repeat so the hobbles are pleated to pattern.

Two different finished lengths required twice the planning!

I pinned the bottom so I wouldn't forget how the layers were sandwiched.

The two layers were first joined at the bottom, at the weight bar pocket.

Then the shade was laid on the table and the face fabric pinned to the flat back along the rows lightly marked with a pencil.

 I worked my way across, double-checking the lines on the flat back which I had marked earlier.

From the back:

And there, friends, is where the photos end!  Sewing these rows is JUST A LITTLE AWKWARD, which helps explain why I have no photos of that step.  After that, it was inevitable that I would forget to continue to document!  But the rest of the job was pretty basic.  

Rings were sewn to the back, and the shades strung (using Ring Locks) and rigged just as if it were a flat roman.  These were reverse mount, which means that the fabric comes off the back of the mounting surface- in this case, Rowley's EZ-Rig headrails with velcro, positioned as far back on the mount board as possible.  

Grommets in the shade allow the cords to come to the front and attach to the lift mechanism, and a blackout-lined topper blocks the grommet holes.

Pleating to pattern worked out beautifully- in this photo, see especially the bottom right which shows the pattern well:

There was another 128" wide x 27" long window for which we made a short hobbled shade that folded entirely up under the valance when raised.

This job was quite an adventure, and we were thrilled at how well it turned out!

Hand-sewing showcase

When wool drapes beautifully, it is because the panel has the internal structure to give it the freedom to hang naturally.  For this Holland and Sherry wool blackout-lined and interlined ripplefold, my biggest concern was giving the header reinforcement and support without impeding the drop of the wool face.  The ripplefold tape had to be sewn by machine, but all other sewing (apart from joining the widths) was done by hand.  We got to use a full complement of hand stitches in this project for Susan Marocco Interiors.

As I showed in the previous post, we carefully plotted out the ripplefold tape placement after testing it on the track.

After joining the widths, hand-hemming, and hand-sewing sewing the trim on, we prepared the header before layering in the linings, even though this mean two tablings.  We fused 2" buckram to the back of the header, and sewed the ripplefold tape through the fabric and buckram by machine.  Back on the table, the linings were layered in, and the interlining was held in place with a "basting stitch" at the top.  These steps gave structure to the header that was invisible from the front.

The lining was folded back up and the header gently pressed in place.

The header was secured by hand with a "back-stitch," one of my favorite hand stitches.  It can't accidentally pull and cause a pucker.  For this purpose, I could make half-inch stitches.  (When I sew seams by hand, right sides together, I use a very tiny back-stitch.  If I sew seams together while the fabric is flat on the table, I use a ladder stitch.)

At that point the panel was well-enough secured that the basting stitches could be removed.  But really, they rolled slightly to the back and didn't show anyhow.

I did not want to risk having light peek through the holes in the blackout lining made by the stitches, so the last step was to fuse Dofix blackout tape over the sewing.  This was probably unnecessary, but I preferred to be safe rather than sorry.

I took a similar precaution on the back side of the machine-sewn hem in the blackout lining.

 Working our way across the table was a little crazy!  Here is one panel partially assembled, and neatly folded to come back to the next day......

We used a lot of hand-sewing techniques for this drapery project.  The trim was hand-sewn down both sides using a "ladder stitch."  Unfortunately I forgot to photograph the stitching used to invisibly secure the interlining to the face at the side hem fold.  We used a long, loose variation of the "serge stitch" which provides security without risk of puckering.

Internally, the layers are loosely joined at the seams with an "interlocking stitch."

The versatile "ladder stitch" was also used for the side hems.

The layers were daisy-chained at the seams at the bottom.
This is a correctly made daisy chain:

And this is not: (hahahaha!)  (Guess who did this one?)
And lastly, here you can see that the bottom hems were hand-sewn with a variation of the "interlocking stitch" to keep the stitches from pulling on the fabric.

A lot of work, and time well spent to create a sublime drapery for a lovely homeowner.

I got to use my own Relaxed Roman class material!

You can imagine that I was amused when my own Relaxed Roman Shade class material came in handy for a relaxed shade project of my own!  I worked with Nicole Gray of Suite Dream to address the issues with this double relaxed roman shade.
You might not be able to tell at first glance that the left and right sides are different widths.  The swoop on the right is about 1" wider than the left swoop.

Last summer I was doing research in preparation for the class I was teaching at the Custom Workroom Weekend last October, and again at the Custom Workroom Conference coming up in May.  I made dozens of samples in order to compile data on the effect of swoop width on the droop length of relaxed roman shade.

To make the droop length come out the same on both sides of this shade, I knew that I'd need to manipulate the ring placement.  To make things more complicated, there is no return on the left, except for 1" to prevent hourglassing, and a 2.5" return on the right.

Normally the wider section would droop more, so I tapered the rings outward to allow a little more droop on the smaller section.

When the shade was hung in the workroom, I could see that I had overcompensated, because the narrower side was a little longer.  (To the left of this shade you can see a grey shade that was the last in the long line of samples I made for the droop experiments!)

I experimented with different ring positions, and in the end I didn't need to re-taper all the bottom rings; I just moved the bottom-most ring over and re-tied them.

That little adjustment was all that was needed.

During fabrication, I kept the sections labeled to keep from getting confused.

I also labeled the weight bar since the center wasn't actually the center.

To keep the interlining from drooping inside the return, I lockstitched it to the face before hemming the sides- a technique I learned from Penny Bruce's classes on English handsewn draperies.

I also basted a lot during fabrication since the shade had to be shifted on the table because it was longer than my 60" wide table.  Here you can see the basted board line.

To avoid pinholes of light coming through the blackout layer at the ring stitches, I overlapped the widths at the center.  Underneath you can see the basting line at the face fabric seam, so I could tell where to put the rings.

I used my two-layer no-pinholes ring sewing technique.

The overlapping layer was then glued down.  You might be able to see a row of fusible adhesive- which I tried first- but without blackout lining those tapes don't always adhere securely, so I switched to tried-and-true fringe adhesive.

We had a happy customer!