Turban swags

Before I had the recent shade marathon, I had a swag sort of half-marathon.  The last proper blog post was the final installment of three about an arched swag treatment.  At the same time, I was drafting a pattern for Turban swags and also some Austrian swags.  So I had a big swag immersion week or two!
Of course the first thing I did for the Turban swags was drape chain weight, following the instructions in Ann Johnson's book.  The vertical chain drop marks the specific short point at the crossover.  Turban swags are hybrids: one side of each swag is a traditional board-mounted swag, and the other side is a boxed swag.  Ann shows how to combine two styles of swag to create this and other hybrid swags.

 Draping the chain weight took a lot of experimenting.  The board and legs were set up on the edge of the table so the chains could easily be adjusted to get the right silhouette.

The Turban swags presented a challenge because the fabric was a woven vertical stripe and the designer wanted the stripes to run horizontally.  Swag patterns are not rectangles- they are weird curved trapezoids- so the stripes would've been cut at an curve at the bottom and I didn't like how that looked.  Therefore I improvised.  The swag was possible by making a more informal look.  On the sides the stripes are pleated, but because the swag wasn't cut as it should've been, it wouldn't hold its folds.  I had to allow the fabric to do what it wanted, yet guide it into pleasing gathers.   The casual gathered look worked well with this heavy woven fabric.

These swags were being mounted on a window which ran straight into a door opening on the left, so the return couldn't be the full length of the swag on the left side.  I made a short return, then a fascia board to support it and provide a surface to wrap the bottom pleats around for stapling.

 A lot of stapling and unstapling and re-stapling went into the process of pleating the swag to achieve a pleasing look.  This is one of many incarnations of the return:

 Finally the swags were pleated attractively, and the returns were finished.  We added velcro and sent along a flap of fabric that the installer could position to conceal any gap, if that proved necessary.

I was on pins and needles until the phone rang- the designer and homeowner LOVED the treatment!

A break from shades

This week I'm taking a break from shades, and focusing on three different swag projects for three different clients.
My go-to source for all things swags is Ann Johnson's superb books, Anatomy of a Swag.

If you are a workroom professional and don't own these books, all I can say is, why not?!
We took a chunk of time to create the frames we'll need for the three projects.  This is not in my comfort zone, so that might have something to do with why you haven't heard from me for a few days!
Lots of sketching, cutting, ripping, labeling little pieces, covering with lining...... this part is a LOT OF WORK!
There's one arch missing: it's out with the installer to check the fit before attaching the treatment.

 Ann's books will be particularly invaluable for the arched treatment.

Not only are the swags arched, but the side swags are actually hybrids: the inner half of each is a board-mounted arched swag, and the outer half of each is boxed: i.e. the pleats go on a vertical leg.  So the pattern will be half-and-half.  Here's a boxed swag we made a few years ago:

Another of the three jobs actually is a boxed swag with flat tails.  The treatment will be an exact duplicate of this, in a new, fresh fabric:

We photographed the inside to make sure we were re-creating the frame in the same way.

The third project will be a Turban swag treatment.  This is also a hybrid, like the outer arched swags without the arch.  This is a gathered Turban swag treatment we made a few years ago:

I'll be photographing the new treatments before they leave the workroom, so stay tuned!