Shaped goblet pleat drapery

I'm at a loss to know where to begin the story of these draperies and sheer shades for a 19th century farmhouse near the Catskills.  I guess I'll just plunge in.  I might divide this into two posts, we'll see how long this gets.  

Shaped goblet pleated panels were fabricated from Palais Garnier, a 125" wide Trevira brocade from Nobilis.  You might remember this project from this post about the mockup- a full-size panel out of the actual fabric, with 4 different lining options, and variations on the header details.




The Pierre Frey poly crinkled netting, Annabella, is fantastic in the sun, blue in one direction and brassy gold in the other.   In the top photo it appears more blue; here more brassy.  The shades are very full at the bottom, with a small tuck in the center.  The board and weight bar are covered in fabric that matches the woodwork paint color.












I'll start with the drapery panels.  The client loved the look of goblet pleats, and as the design concept developed, she decided on 6" deep pleats with a cutout tulip shape.  This mockup also convinced us that a solid microcord was necessary to define the edge since the fabric is a little bumpy. 

Having a 125" fabric for the face that was not a sheer was a first for me.  It made it easy to calculate yardage.  The horizontal repeat is 20" so that allowed 10" for each pleat + space together, with alternating motifs on the pleats. 

I made a pattern for the header and used it for all the panels.  After laying out all three fabrics, I traced the pattern and cut it out, inserting fusible buckram cut to fit only the spaces.

















Careful pinning kept the layers together....

 so that I could flip the panel and apply the gold silk microcord.  It's hard to believe that during fabrication of 7 pairs of these draperies, I forgot to take a picture of the process of sewing on the facing, but suffice it to say that it was torturous, sewing all the curves and points!




One pair of panels were for a French door.  I thought that since guests would be going in and out of these doors every time the homeowners entertained, the back side of the lead edges that showed through the glass should have a nicer finish, so I put a lip cord into the seam.

That's all for now, more about the sheers next time :)

Extreme Mock-up

There were many questions about this drapery project, and a lot of decisions to be made, and since the homeowner had about 80" extra of the 120" wide fabric, we decided to make a full-size mockup.
The biggest issue was lining.  The woven damask pattern completely washed out when sun came through the fabric.  To decide on the best lining option, we sewed together 20" of four different lining combinations.

To the right, one layer of napped sateen.  Next to that is natural interlining, then dim-out thermal lining, and all the way to the left, khaki napped sateen, all three of those layered between the face fabric and ivory sateen.
When the panel was hung, of course the linings are in the reverse order.  On the left, the single layer of napped sateen was very little help in preventing pattern wash-out.  To the far right, the khaki layer blocked a surprising amount of sun.  In the middle, the two other options were similar, except that the natural interlining enhanced the yellow in the ocher ground to produce a beautiful luminous gold color, and and also lent its rich fullness, which the dim-out could not match.   We agreed that natural interlining and ivory lining were the way to go.

For the mockup I wanted to actually sew the shaped goblet pleats, which as you can see I did not get around to tacking; that helped us determine a few other things- first, the 6" deep pleat is just a little too much, as the shadow line falls below the bottom of the window trim; and the more rigid buckram was the best of the 3 options we tested.
Up close we also decided we liked the gold silk for the microcord, but we'll make it a tad bigger so it will show up better.

Also I think that the cutout shape could be a little more exaggerated, so I'll modify my pattern for the real thing.   One thing I learned from this trial panel is that it would be much easier to welt the facing rather than the body of the drape.  To prevent distortion around the curves, I'll use a fusible fabric stabilizer on the facing.  I think I will not cut the shape in the panel until sewing the layers is completed.

 

Lastly, we both liked the panel puddled- neither of us being "puddle people," we were surprised! 

In a Purple Haze

I've noticed that purple is a popular decorating color in the winter.  February's birthstone is amethyst, which perhaps reflects an increased attraction to purple when it is cold and dull outside- it sure does pep up a subdued palate.  Still, it was surprising to have SO MUCH purple in-house this winter.
On February 4 I took this picture of purple fabrics that came in for immediate projects. 

These purples were mostly paired with natural, sage or loden, or silver-grey.

The project that kicked off purple month was a simple purple burnout velvet panel, box-pleated onto a board, with purple glass beads shown off when the fabric is draped back to one side.

Next were pillows in silver and purple, balanced with a hint of loden in the outlining:

Then a 165" valance and panels of a gold-dusted natural silk, color-blocked with silver-grey and purple satin.  These did not photograph well, but in the house they are fabulous. 

Four neo-bohemian shades were exuberant with their purple borders trimmed with purple and sage glass beads:

The Sheffield Queen lined what felt like a couple of miles of valances with purple, trimmed with purple fringe: 

Here the sage and purple face fabric stretches across the workroom into infinity, or at least it felt that long:

And for the last purple project of the month: just-the-other-side-of-periwinkle-purple bands and welts the sage and purple toile on this goblet pleat valance: