Knuckleball fabric

I love to watch a great knuckleball pitcher at work, except, of course, when he's pitching against the Yankees. (I'm thinking, of course, of Tim Wakefield.)   Hitters never know what they're going to get, so they mostly have to be lucky to get a hit.
Sometime workrooms get fabrics that turn out to be a knuckleball- for example, this embroidered fabric- and when it came in, I did need a little luck for it to work.
The stated repeat was 4", but the curve was- it turned out to be 3.5".  So I had to change my game plan during the game.
Luckily, I had just finished teaching a Hobbled Shade Master Class at Workroom Tech, so I was well versed and fluent in hobbled shade improv! 

Custom window treatments begin with a careful assessment by the workroom to determine a fabric's suitability for the project, and how it will be used.  In order to plan this large hobbled shade for Crosstown Shade and Glass, I printed up images of this embroidered pattern:

I taped them together, and worked with the repeat until I had a layout I liked.  Since the repeat was 4", I planned to make folds of 6", which meant that each fold had 1 1/2 rows of the flower motif, and every other fold would match.  Fabric requirements were based on this fabrication plan.

This was a great plan, but then the knuckleball came over the plate.  The repeat wasn't 4" at all- it was 3.5'.

That might not seem like a big deal, but, if I folded it according to the original layout, the folds would've been too small, with too little in the pleat.  It would've looked cluttered and skimpy.  I had to do it differently, but would there be enough fabric for a Plan B?

So instead I experimented with two repeats for each fold, and two full repeats in the pleat.  The folds were so much better with extra fabric in the pleats. The luck I needed came in when I re-calculated the required yardage to suit the new specs, and I realized I'd have just enough!

You might wonder, how would this shade be compliant with the safety standards, since the loop created by the fabric + hobble tape would exceed the maximum 16.9".   Well, I have a technique for that!  My students learned it last month at Workroom Tech when they attended the Hobbled Shade Master Class that I taught.  (I'll be teaching it again in August!)

Anyhow, from this point, fabrication went on as usual.  Finally it was time to hang up the shade and check out the proportions and the finished length. 
The original pattern repeat would have worked perfectly with the finished length. and the top fold would've been the same size as all the other folds.  However, the new repeat resulted in a top fold that was too big.

It looked good raised all the way..........

But the homeowner planned to keep it halfway- and it looks awkward.

I taped up a piece of paper to show the designer how it would look with a topper that was smaller than the folds.

And that was the winner!

 It looked good when fully raised....

And also partway up.

So this is a story with a lesson- build in a little luck for yourself when spec'ing out a job, in case you get a knuckleball.  Don't assume that the stated fabric specs are accurate- round a bit up when calculating cut lengths, because an unforeseen circumstance might dictate a little more fabric. 

Outside Mount Hobbled Shade

For outside mounted hobbled shades, I often like to eliminate the top fold and replace it with a flat topper, the same size as a fold, and wrap it around the ends of the board.

Without the topper, the length of the top of the shade is the equivalent of two folds.

There is still a row of rings for the top fold, even though it's imaginary.

When the shade is fully raised, the top fold looks nearly continuous with the other folds.  Because the stack of folds kicks forward, I do not strive to make them tuck under the topper- the bulk of the fold stack would just distort the topper.

If you prefer a "picture area" you could leave the top this way, and have a deeper flat section.  This could be perfect when there is a large motif.

The pattern repeat was 15", so we multiplied by 2 and divided by 3 to make every third fold match.  I think this attention to detail gives the shade a subtle orderliness.

I recently added a walking foot machine to my collection.

This type of machine feeds the fabric layers at different rates, so when you come to the end of your seam, the layers have remained aligned.  With a straight stitch machine, the top layer of many fabrics will "walk" forward as the seam is sewn, resulting in layers that are out of alignment with each other.  Velvet is one such fabric.  The shade fabric is a sort-of velvet- it has a pile, though it isn't high, and the layers did not slide with my new machine.

For the weight bar pocket, I was especially grateful for the walking foot machine.

When I got to the end of the pocket, everything was perfectly aligned!  With a straight stitch machine, it would've been a struggle to get them somewhat even.  Those days are over!  More on the walking foot in future posts. 

Details on the 158" shade

There's a lot of detail I'd like to share about the 158" shade featured in last Friday's post.

The fabric was railroaded- it wasn't perfectly symmetrical in both directions, but nearly, and the repeat was small in either case, so I thought it would be best to have no visible seams.  Instead, we seamed it horizontally and hid the seam under a fold.  Figuring out the logistics was trickier than I thought it would be!  Luckily I got it right, whew.  The repeat is just 4.5" so the folds are a little smaller and closer together than I usually plot for hobbled shades.

I did catch a break on marking the fabric for sewing the tape and rings.  I used a lovely double-wide cotton sateen from Hanes, and could just see through it enough to make the marks by pattern instead of having to measure.  THAT was a huge plus- it not only saved time, but also assured accuracy.  I took this photo of the first shade as pattern placement reference for the following two.

The Rollease Skyline clutch on a 1.5" tube provided a strong lift system.  After using this tube a lot recently for both clutch AND spring lift systems, I think I will now remember without having to look it up: screw eyes for clutch, NO screw eyes for spring.

Another thing I think I finally will remember without having to look it up: for reverse mount hobbled shades, DO NOT put the grommet through the tape!  I had to wiggle the tape free out of every grommet in order to make slight adjustments to the board line.  I also finally got smart while making the adjustments and instead of unstapling, I used a blunt instrument to nudge a bit of lining upward and stapled it to the back of the board.

Did you see what tool I'm using there?  It's our new Milwaukee cordless, battery-operated staple gun!  My hands are no longer able to operate an old-fashioned manual staple gun, and the shade was too far away for the compressor hose, so this new toy I mean tool came in very handy!

The tube, at 158", was too long to safely use without support.  Luckily Rollease has introduced a splice- the Easy-Link.  This allows the tube to be split in half and spliced, with the splice doing double duty as a support bracket.

For a fail-safe during transportation, we used cable tie mounts at each end of each tube, just in case the tube came out of the bracket.  It can't fall far, because it's all strung up to the shade, but it saved some annoyance when it DID happen and we needed to put it back together.  Please note: we snipped the cable ties loose once the shade was installed, because they would add resistance to the lift if they stayed in place.
There are two types of cable tie mounts: one is all in one piece; the other sticks on then you secure it with a screw- that's the one we wound up using.

Oh, and another thing.  If you read the previous post, you might remember that the soft cornices didn't quite fit in the corner, and I had to take them back to adjust the ends.  I made a piece of welting on "wings" with velcro, and velcroed it in between where the new ends met.  I forgot to take a photo of the welt with wings, sorry.

I wish I could say that the pattern flowed around the corner because of meticulous planning, but really it was serendipity that the pattern on the two ends created a near match.  Sometimes luck is better than skill!

It WAS skill, however, and not a bit of luck involved, that the pattern matched preciselty from the soft cornice to the shade!  And I'll gladly take full credit for THAT, as well as the perfect pleat-to-pattern :)

158" wide hobbled shade!

Oversize continues to be a trend here! 
After the 350# of shades, before the Norovirus hit in full force, I worked on three hobbled shades for Denise Wenacur.  Two were 120"- those were the small ones.  The big one was 158"- over 13'.  Then I got really sick for real, and had to postpone the installation for a week.  We finally got there, only to find that the household AND their renovation contractor also had been stricken with Norovirus that same week! 

I'll write a more detailed post next week, but I've had such a rough time this year keeping up with this blog, I didn't want to wait any longer to show a peek of the product and process.
It was a bear to sew- it was both longer and wider than my table- but although this might look like uncontrolled chaos, there actually is order to the mess.

The trusswork John built for oversize shades was just big enough to hold the 158" shade!

We learned A LOT during the fabrication and rigging with the lovable Rollease 1.5" tube clutch lift system.  Though we've used them before, this one was the biggest ever, and I'll detail the process in the next post.  I was grateful to have a way to hang the shade to trouble-shoot and dress it in the workroom instead of at the customer's home.

Not everything went perfectly smoothly on installation day- I had to take back the two soft cornices that met in the far corner, because I hadn't made the right allowance for them to meet. 

It wasn't hard to modify the soft cornices.  We returned the next day to re-install,  in plenty of time for a birthday celebration party!  I was happy we didn't have to leave the room unfinished.

Stay tuned, I'll get to the nitty-gritty next week!

Epic installation day....

Four installations in one day!
None were huge projects, but if you combine four small-to-medium installations, you wind up with one epic day.
After we installed the flat-back reverse mount blackout hobbled shades that I wrote about last week, we made three drapery installation stops, all for Croton on Hudson designer Denise Wenacur.

After installing those seven complicated shades in the morning, it was nice to start the afternoon with a less challenging second stop: a rod pocket valance over grey voile rod pocket sheers, for a tween bedroom makeover.









At the third home, pretty two-finger pinch pleat sheer-lined-with-sheer draperies freshened up the dining room.  We love the simplicity of H-rail tracks, with glides instead of rings.

And- the homeowner reports that upstairs, a window seat is now irresistable, with a new cushion, bolsters, and pillows.  She and her daughters vie for the spot for afternoon lounging!  The bolsters are filled with custom-made wedge foam forms, and generously wrapped in batting.  We had the homeowner sit on the window seat and we measured her back to get the exact right size for maximum comfort.

The last stop of the day was for a repeat client.  Grommet panels in her dining room are pretty totally wonderful- this modern Thom Filicia print making a huge impact next to the grey grasscloth wall.

I planned the grommet placement carefully, making my cryptic notes on blue tape that I left on the curtain while I worked. 

A long strip of tape marks the line where the tops of the grommets lie, and the short tapes mark one side of the grommet.

The inside of the grommet is marked with pencil, so the cutter can be positioned precisely.

 

This ensures perfect placement.

Are grommets making a comeback?  Based on the number of quotes we've been doing lately, I think so!  When they look as good as these do, it's a great style for a modern wave heading.