84" tieback

The story of the 84" tieback is the third installment of the oversize ripplefold project for Crosstown Shade and Glass.    Though it looks simple, it was anything but- to create the smooth, sleek crescent I envisioned, I decided to hand-sew it.

The first step was getting the correct proportions.  Obviously if the panel was just 8' long, the tieback would've been much narrower.  Steve from Crosstown measured and determined that the wide point should be 8" and taper down to 4" ends.

It was up to me to draft the boat-shaped pattern.  The tieback was 84" wide in all,  and the fabric widths were joined so the seam would be in the back.  This was the only machine sewing.

I thought that buckram was necessary to help the tieback keep its shape, and I also knew that machine-sewing right sides together and turning was not going to give me the sleekness I envisioned, so I made the tieback sort of like I make a soft cornice, layering the face fabric, interlining and Skirtex. 

The interlining was trimmed close to the buckram, the curves were clipped in the face fabric, and Jewel tape applied to the buckram.

The face fabric was folded over, secured with the tape, then gently steamed into shape.

The self lining was layered on, the raw edges turned under leaving a little edge that I could sew to.  Then the entire perimeter of the tieback was hand-sewn with tiny ladder stitches to secure the self lining to the face.

This gave me exactly the look I wanted to achieve.

I think it's perfect :)

Stationary wool shades

Susan Marocco chose beautiful Holland and Sherry wools for two stationary Roman shade valances in the same home as the wool ripplefold draperies I wrote about in June.

Both shades were trimmed around the perimeter with Samuel and Sons tapes.  We mitered the corners, and the blue shade featured two layered tapes.

From past experience with wool shades I knew the layers needed to be interlocked internally to support the wool and keep it from sagging.
First the interlining was interlocked to the wool face.  We used the seam in the face fabric and then interlocked in alignment with where the rings would eventually be sewn.

 

Ribs were sewn to the interlining to provide additional structure.

Above the board line, the interlining was serge stitched to the face fabric.

The lining was interlocked at the board line.

The ribs were secured to the lining, then the rings sewn in between the ribs.  These little tack stitches are visible on the back, but they lie on the column line with the rings so they're not noticeable.

The side hems were sewn by hand, and the bottom finished as per my usual method, with buckram in the hem.

To miter the trim corners, we first basted by hand to make sure the pattern was well aligned.   The corners were then sewn by machine, cut, clipped, pressed, and the little fiber ends stabilized with some tight little stitches and a dot of glue.

The mitered trim was sewn by hand to the outer edges with a ladder stitch.  How the pattern falls on a pattern like the Greek key is a matter of math and luck; for this shade, we had pretty good luck!

Because in both rooms the underside of the boards are not easily visible, we did not need to make returns, but we did use a bit of trim to cover the ends of the boards.

The time we spent on steps to support and stabilize the wool were well spent.

Hand-sewing showcase

When wool drapes beautifully, it is because the panel has the internal structure to give it the freedom to hang naturally.  For this Holland and Sherry wool blackout-lined and interlined ripplefold, my biggest concern was giving the header reinforcement and support without impeding the drop of the wool face.  The ripplefold tape had to be sewn by machine, but all other sewing (apart from joining the widths) was done by hand.  We got to use a full complement of hand stitches in this project for Susan Marocco Interiors.

As I showed in the previous post, we carefully plotted out the ripplefold tape placement after testing it on the track.

After joining the widths, hand-hemming, and hand-sewing sewing the trim on, we prepared the header before layering in the linings, even though this mean two tablings.  We fused 2" buckram to the back of the header, and sewed the ripplefold tape through the fabric and buckram by machine.  Back on the table, the linings were layered in, and the interlining was held in place with a "basting stitch" at the top.  These steps gave structure to the header that was invisible from the front.

The lining was folded back up and the header gently pressed in place.

The header was secured by hand with a "back-stitch," one of my favorite hand stitches.  It can't accidentally pull and cause a pucker.  For this purpose, I could make half-inch stitches.  (When I sew seams by hand, right sides together, I use a very tiny back-stitch.  If I sew seams together while the fabric is flat on the table, I use a ladder stitch.)

At that point the panel was well-enough secured that the basting stitches could be removed.  But really, they rolled slightly to the back and didn't show anyhow.

I did not want to risk having light peek through the holes in the blackout lining made by the stitches, so the last step was to fuse Dofix blackout tape over the sewing.  This was probably unnecessary, but I preferred to be safe rather than sorry.

I took a similar precaution on the back side of the machine-sewn hem in the blackout lining.

 Working our way across the table was a little crazy!  Here is one panel partially assembled, and neatly folded to come back to the next day......

We used a lot of hand-sewing techniques for this drapery project.  The trim was hand-sewn down both sides using a "ladder stitch."  Unfortunately I forgot to photograph the stitching used to invisibly secure the interlining to the face at the side hem fold.  We used a long, loose variation of the "serge stitch" which provides security without risk of puckering.

Internally, the layers are loosely joined at the seams with an "interlocking stitch."

The versatile "ladder stitch" was also used for the side hems.

The layers were daisy-chained at the seams at the bottom.
This is a correctly made daisy chain:

And this is not: (hahahaha!)  (Guess who did this one?)
And lastly, here you can see that the bottom hems were hand-sewn with a variation of the "interlocking stitch" to keep the stitches from pulling on the fabric.

A lot of work, and time well spent to create a sublime drapery for a lovely homeowner.