More sheer Roman shades

Another very striking sheer stripe has been turned into Roman shades. 

The success of a sheer shade is all about how well-behaved the fabric is by nature.  This one folded up beautifully- it was a good choice.

The weight bar was covered in fabric tubing before being inserted into its pocket.

Again we used the cord loop shroud and it is nearly unnoticeable.

Sheer shade with skinny upholstery fabric band

This warm sheer stripe shade required a little bit of special handling......

..... because it was banded at the bottom with a skinny strip of pumpkin-colored upholstery weight fabric.

The shade was laid out on the fabric gridded table top, hemmed on the sides, and pinned in place.

Camel-colored cord loop shroud was pinned in place, too, and tacked to the fabric along with the clear rings.  You can't even see the little monofilament loops which will shroud the lift cord when the shade is strung.
The grid makes it easy to place the rings without marking, since you can see through the sheer!

For the bottom weight bar pocket and hem, a separate strip was folded in half and placed on the back of the shade.  Masking tape was helpful for marking, basting, and stabilizing.  The basting line of red thread marked the bottom of the shade and held the three layers together.

The skinny strip of orange fabric was sewn to the right side, and the red basting line made it easy to line them up.  Do you see the mistake I made?  This photo shows the banding pinned next to the wrong side- an error I didn't notice til it was sewn, so I had to take it off and re-sew it to the right side.

Once I fixed that little boo-boo, the layers were trimmed close to the stitching line.

Then the band was turned to the back, carefully pressed, then hand-stitched.

Nice!
Technically I think this is actually a binding rather than a band. 

The pocket was sewn in the hem strip, then the strip was sewn to the shade body following the masking tape stitching line.  The shroud was extended down to the pocket, looped, and secured with the stitching line.  Later the loose end was tied to the bottom ring for extra security.

Here's the finished bottom before the weight bar was inserted.

A scrap of warm tan fabric served to create a cover for the weight bar. The tan lift cord blends with the fabric and the cord loop shroud.

The same tan fabric was used to cover the board, which you can see in this shot of the back.   Also you can see how nicely the unobtrusive cord loop shroud shirrs up as the shade is raised.

There were valance for these shades, too, out of the orange fabric, and I'll show those next time.

Cord Shroud Tape

I like to make hobbled shades with the cord shroud tape from Rowley.  It serves two purposes at once- it hobbles the shade, and shrouds the lift cord.

 It can be sewn on entirely by machine.  I use my little domestic Juki which automatically cuts the thread at the tap of my finger, so I barely even need to use scissors.  I sew back and forth on one side, then raise the needle and sew back and forth on the other side, leaving the lift cord free.

When I cut my tapes for this shade I wasn't thinking, and cut them all to the finished length, so when ready to string, I didn't have enough lift cord to carry across the top as the operating cords.  This is easy to fix without doing the tapes over again.  Just tie some new cord to the bottom with a small but secure knot;

and gently pull from the top to feed the new cord through, allowing enough to carry across and down the other side.

This works for all the other shroud products as well: mesh tube shroud, ladder tape, or cord loop shroud.  I've had to do it with them all, one time or another, either because I cut them too short, or because I "lost" the cord inside the shroud.

Stan and Crash show off

Wonderful new fabrics are constantly appearing here, which gives me reason to live.

This eyelet I assume is laser-cut.

The bottom hem is double-folded to pattern so you can see through it.

For sheer shades, I cover the weight bar in tubing before inserting it into the pocket.  (Where white or natural is not appropriate, I make a tube out of the face fabric.)

I chose cord loop shroud for this shade.

From the front, the squiggly cord is not noticeable.

Unless you put your eye right up to the fabric.

Workroom Valets have feelings, too, and ours even have names.  They are Stan and Crash, and here they are, showing off.