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!

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.

A make-over

A NYC client was dissatisfied with some recently installed treatments and I was asked to assess them and propose a way to make corrections.  
First let me show you the "after" picture:

When I arrived I was dismayed when I saw the depth of the challenge.   Here's a quick glimpse of what I found when I first visited this home:

The valances needed complete remaking, as the calculations clearly went awry and left no way to correct the existing treatment.  The fine satin required better fabrication techniques than the factory-caliber treatment it was given.

This talented designer worked brilliantly within parameters that he did not choose.
The decision was made to eliminate the valances to lighten up the room.  I had the opportunity to re-make the panels, by hand, with fresh imported Duchess Satin and wool/linen Greek Fret trim, and re-work the silk sheers, making them 10" longer to up fit into the recess.  (Yes, 10" longer.  THAT took some serious magic.)
The designer's choice of hardware was absolute genius:  rectangular Lucite poles with brass fittings, so the gorgeous matching 5" trim on the soffit could be seen through the Lucite.
6" cartridge pleats allowed the satin to drop in sleek, smooth columns.

The soffit was 12" deep.  That depth plus the returns on the brackets required a 15" return on the drapery, and it needed to be cut to shape around the shaped molding and faced.  Each panel was a slightly different length, and the depth of the cutout varied with each panel as well.  We labelled everything carefully and miraculously avoided any mix-ups!

The return needed to be held rigid.  My original plan was to insert a support into the pocket created by the facing.  It kind of worked, but not quite well enough, so we went back and actually stapled the returns into the underside of the soffit.

Satin in itself creates challenges, because the light enhances every ripple and dimple.  The heavy trim was not only on the vertical lead edge, but also across the bottom.  We experimented with sewing it on both by machine and by hand, but the satin puckered no matter what.  So, guess what?  I bought a Dofix to apply this trim.  

 

The fabrication and installation were so intense that I really didn't take the time to capture as many photos as I now wish I had.  The take-away: both homeowner and designer were thrilled with the make-over. 

A bunch of new tools and gadgets went a long way toward moving this project forward efficiently.  I'm itching to do a separate blog post about those.

The new treatments

Installation day in New York City is usually a big production.  Yesterday 78' of board-mounted treatments replaced treatments we originally made in 2003.

These photos show two of the four areas we treated.  It took some mathematical gymnastics to decide on a common denominator so the sections could be approximately the same size.


The cool, airy treatments, designed by Kim Freeman of Freeman Design Group, were made from curtains from the client's country home that we made in 2008.

The original treatments

A set of mock-ups showing different styles, fabrics, and trims helped the designer narrow down the client's preferences.

Why did I forget to take a close-up!?  Well, I've got a close-up of the mock-up, below.  The 4"
one-way pleats, all rippling in the same direction throughout all the areas, create a sort of wave illusion which is modern and restful.

For this fabric, a slubby linen blend sheer,  we chose a plain-weave lightweight white cotton lining which gives shape to the undulating pleats.  While the unlined mock-up was floppy and uncontrolled, the finished product has a serene orderliness.

Mathematics!

The plain linen banding lends a quiet definition to the bottom silhouette, and blends perfectly with the wall color.  This, along with the fact that the pleats end perfectly at the corners, was no coincidence but the result of careful planning by the designer and the workroom.

Our installation team was a model of efficiency and proficiency.  They made it look effortless.

On the way out of town I stopped at the Museum of Natural History to catch the Silk Road exhibit before it closes on Sunday.  I also finally got to see the Golden Orb Spider Silk Tapestry- awesome!- there's a picture of it in the top right corner of this page.  That gold is the color of the silk- it's not dyed!  

The winner- a little wrinkly

The mockups

Treatments were made from this curtains