Catching up-

Oh I had the best intentions of posting every single day until Christmas, but really, the last two days got the best of me.  We made 19 shades and 7 valances, between Friday-Monday.  So I guess that's why I didn't have time to do a blog post!  Here is a sampling.
One of 15 relaxed romans, this one with dog-ears, 1" returns, and 1/2" top welt:

Antique satin makes a nice, drapey shade, and sleek top welting:

 Ten of the relaxed romans were machine-sewn, pillowcased with a 1" side hem.

We made all 10 at once, which speeded up the process.  Here are the other 9, waiting to be board-mounted and strung.  And guess what that cream-colored fabric is- yes, more antique satin......

This dog-ear valance was made a couple of weeks ago, same style, different proportions: about 45" wide, with 3 1/2" returns, rings set in 6" like the blue one above.

How about this embroidered beauty?

This is my way of making non-functioning flat roman shades to be used as valances.  Thank you Scot Robbins!   If you leave a bit of lift cord, the treatment is slightly adjustable with the orbs.

 This shade is part of a bigger story, to come later, but, this shot is useful for illustrating the kick-back of flat romans when they are hanging freely without a window to hold them forward.

Happy New Year, Blog!!!

Hey!  This blog is now 6 years old!
For my first post of the new year, here is a project for Paris Interiors in Scarsdale NY that included something of everything: a relaxed shade, a soft cornice, a 14' hard cornice, interlined pinch pleats with exquisite trim, and 14' of sheers.

The shade and soft cornice were in adjoining rooms, made from the same fabric- a taupe Scottish lace from Noblis-  but treated very differently.

In the living room, a luxurious ombre silk from Romo became stationary  pinch pleat panels mounted over a cornice, with grey traversing sheers under.

The shade is flat, with the rings set in 10" to create generous tails.  The bottom is trimmed with layered tape and glass beads from Samuel and Sons.  In case you wonder about the proportions, the width is about 65".  The lace is lined with a plain winter white voile.

I'm falling in love again with soft cornices.

This one was made on two layers of buckram.  Here the fabric is laid out over the paper pattern and photographed for the designer's approval.

Napped lining in khaki was layered under the lace, and a tiny lip cord finished the bottom edge.  All of this was hand-sewn, not glued.  It's not that I'm anti-adhesive, it's just that I like the results of sewing better with this little lip cord, plus sewing is more fun.

The top was finished with a 1/4" braid lip cord.

I wasn't sure if the treatment would need legs, but it did.  We didn't want the treatment to extend much beyond the molding, so I made the legs out of 1/4" hardwood from Home Depot.

The breathtaking trim for the LR panels came from Zimmer-Rohde.  It is applied by Dofix.  The pinch pleats are tacked by hand, with the thread looping around the front of the pleats.  Unfortunately it was totally impossible to pleat this to pattern, but I think it is fine anyhow!

 The sheers were also entirely sewn by hand.  I LOVE sewing sheers.

It was important to keep the face of the cornice untouched in case the client ever wants to use it without the panels.  I slipped pin strip from Rowley under the loosened top welt.  It was a little tricky hooking the drapery pins into the little holes, but Mario managed to do so, gracefully.

Little screw eyes provided a spot to hang the returns.

It took awhile to dress this silk, but Mario excels at that.  I let out the lead edge hem on one side and re-stitched on-site, to let it down a little- it didn't want to reach the floor without some coaxing.

I learned a lot from this installation.  That's why it's important for workrooms to get out there when their products are being installed.  Seeing the challenges and devising solutions informs protocol for the next time around with the same treatment.

Multiple treatments for versatility

So many windows would benefit from multiple treatments.  You want light control, temperature moderation, sound insulation, and beauty. Throughout the day and the seasons your needs change; as many as three or four treatments on some windows would not be unrealistic, to achieve various combinations of sheer, semi-sheer, lined, or blackout layers. 

Anyhow, my clients needed two layers of treatments on their kitchen windows, and there was no room for a curtain layer, so we did two shades.  Underneath is a sheer linen relaxed roman shade, and on top a split roman, so they have multiple options for privacy and light control.

Both shades are trimmed with the sweetest most delicious grosgrain ribbon- REAL grosgrain, French, in subtle organic greens, from Hyman Hendler in NYC.

For the split romans, the grosgrain serves as binding.  Since it's tiny- just 7/8" to start then folded in half- the whole shade was basted together beforehand, to keep all the parts in place.  Sometimes you see buttons used to cinch the split  together, but here the ring tacks do the job.  This style can be dressed out, too, with a scrunchie effect between the cinches.  Plain white sateen is used in the pleat.  We chose not to add microcord at the pleat, instead letting the shadow of the meticulously trimmed seam allowance define the pleat line.

The ribbon on the undershade is aligned with the split in the roman shade.
Each shade is on its own board, and there is a linen valance on the window-side of the board to disguise the mechanisms from view from the outside.

There were so many ways to lay out the motifs on this Pierre Frey botannical print.  We wanted to lose as little pattern as possible, and didn't want both shades to be identical.  I took half a dozen photos along the lines of these with different layouts to choose from.  The goal was not so much centering as it was tonal balance.

Details: black on black

I cleaned up my computer desktop last night, and discovered eight or ten sets of photos for blog "stories" that I never got around to posting.  Here's one of them: a little dog-ear relaxed roman shade.

Believe it or not, the face fabric is a black and white sheer, and the shade is backed with black sateen lining.  Bead trim is sewn in at the bottom. 

We used a black cord lock and black lift cord from Rowley, and clear rings disappear against the black.  So from the outside, the fittings are unobtrusive.  

Two medium-wide relaxed Romans

I'm just kicking myself today because I discovered that I sent out a 91" wide striped silk relaxed double-swoop roman shade with dog-ears, and I forgot to take a picture of it!
Also slipping out from under the camera lens, a 90" single swoop relaxed roman out of puckered faux silk, that one would never think would work, but did, beautifully.
Relaxed Romans are such an interesting topic in the workroom world, because truly every size and style is unique.   There are no firm rules, and every workroom has its own fabrication theory.

There are a number of different ways to create a relaxed look on a wider window.  These two relaxed romans are about the same width- about 70-75"- but treated very differently.

Here, small pleats add fullness to the double swoops.  There's 4" in the middle pleat, to let the stripe repeat continuously.  At each end is a little half-pleat, and no returns.   This is an unlined linen/cotton/poly blend. 

This relaxed roman shade/valance with dog ears and returns is about the same width as the shade above.  There is no added fullness, but the center droop is significant, partly because of the width, and partly because the fabric is heavier, and lined.

Dog-Ear Relaxed Shades Comparison

We had three dog-ear shades in one month, each for a different designer.  Although I have already shown them all in the past 3 weeks, I'm putting them all together in this post to easily compare how different widths affect the droop and silhouette.  The width of the "ears" varies in proportion to the shade width.

This is 72" wide, silk, and interlined; banded with velvet, no returns.  The ears are 8.5" wide.

Here is a plain lined silk, 44" wide plus returns, with 6" ears.  

And a teensy weensy dog-ear shade, 22" wide plus returns, 4" ears, made out of a crinkle sheer lined with lightweight lining.  

Another Dog-Ear Relaxed Roman

My friend Camille came over the other day to use our tables to make a shade for herself.  It turns out she was making a dog-eared relaxed Roman- which I had just made a couple of weeks before.  This one is 44" wide, with returns for an outside mount.

Here's the one we made recently, the interlined white silk with the yellow velvet 3/4" banding all around.  It is 72" wide and inside mounted.

Relaxed Roman with Dog Ears

Here's a beautiful, clean, serene Relaxed Roman variation for a NYC apartment.
There is no fullness: the lift lines are set in about 8.5" to create drooping dog-ears.
Translucent interlined white silk is banded with 3/4" of yellow velvet.
This shade is about 70" wide, in case you're wondering about proportion.

To keep the layers from shifting, first I hand-basted the velvet to the 3 layers before machine sewing.

After sewing with a scant 3/4" seam, I rolled the velvet over and hand-sewed it to the back.