Super-fun fabrics

I love the trusswork John built for hanging and leveling our shades! 
Take a good look at it, because tomorrow I'll show an alternative use for the apparatus.
The following shades, for Crosstown Shade and Glass, are blackout with our special no-pinholes-of-light method.  This sunny yellow with appliqued circles and embroidery was fun to work with.  At first we thought there was no way we would be able to join the widths and get a good pattern match, but once we saw the trick to the match, it was easy. 

Are those folds pleated to pattern??- ah, uh, um, YES!  Of course.   And the 4" padded fascia is pattern matched to the shade.

 

All of our blackout shades have internal ribs.  They prevent the folds from losing their definition, and prevent the homeowner from losing her mind, since she won't have to dress these folds every time the shade is raised.

This whimsical embroidery was equally delightful to work with.

Again with the pleat to pattern.... in this case, every other fold matches.  We assess the pattern repeat to determine if we can match every fold, every other, or every third.  In fact, I'm presenting a live webinar in June (to the WCAA Virtual Chapter) on this very subject.  Once you get used to pleating to pattern, whether on shades or draperies, you won't go back to random!

The attention to detail is especially effective with side-by-side identical shades.  I love how the pattern flows from the fascia to the shade. 

Top Down Bottom Up Adventure

I said I'd come back to this shade- and this is the day!  Top down bottom up (TDBU) shades, with two independent lift systems, are cool but tricky.  There are a couple of steps that used to stump me, but between reading up and experimenting I learned a few things that really helped both the fabrication and the end product. 

Fabricated for Crosstown Shade and Glass

I started by making a shade as I always do, but I also added ribs both at the rings and at the folds, to give maximum structure and support.  (I was hoping that the ribs would eliminate the need for interior lift lines.  More on that coming up.)
Something I wasn't sure about was ring spacing.  I wanted to let the shade fold to pattern and approached spacing as if it were a regular shade- but then I wound up with too much at the top, which would made the top fold different from the rest- duh!  I re-positioned the rings and ribs a couple of times and thereby learned a key piece of information: the ring spacing must be determined by dividing the finished length into precisely equal spaces.  I ignored the repeat in the end; with this trailing-vine pattern, it didn't matter much.
If I work with pattern again on TDBU I will be better armed to crunch numbers.  Workrooms often must work with specifications given without consideration for the fabric.  If I had control of the specs, I'd manipulate the finished length and topper length to achieve ring spacing to fold to pattern.   In this case, a longer topper would've cut down the shade finished length enough that the ring spacing could have followed the pattern.

The top of the shade was always the step that caused me much trouble.  I knew that it needs an insert that is rigid and inflexible and can be drilled through.  Photos posted by Elki Horn offered some great ideas for the top.  I happened to have a piece of drapery rod that wasn't needed, and it worked perfectly.  John drilled a hole through the pole for the lift lines that operate the top-down function of the shade.  An orb made it easy later to level the top.

When I made TDBU shades in the past, I followed directions that had me putting grommets in the top pocket.  That was always a big pain.  The fabric layers are thick, and it's hard to position the grommet precisely, and the whole thing looked messy.  I used Elki's suggestion and ran the line through the fabric with a big needle.

In the past I machine-sewed a top pocket, and I always hated seeing that stitching line.  This time I folded the top down over the pole and hand-sewed it in place.   This works but the sewing has to be tight and secure and occasional stitches must pick through to the front to hold the layers together.  I'm sorry I didn't take more photos as I went- sometimes when working on a less-familiar product it's easy to forget to document- even though that's exactly when I want them!

TDBU shades need a topper to conceal the two lift systems.  In this case the topper specified was a shallow, simple upholstered cornice.  There wasn't a lot of mounting space available, so the dustboard was only 2.5".  In the future, I'd want a wider dustboard for a hard topper, or, alternatively, a soft topper.  The two clutches fit, but were awfully cramped, and the wood topper made access difficult.

The shade was about 40" wide and I wasn't sure if the bottom-up function would require more than 2 lift lines.  We tried it with just 2 but the folds sagged dreadfully, even with all the rib support.  So I added one center line and three lines were plenty.  The top down only had the two end lift lines.

 

The shade was leveled so that the top tucked up under the topper.  The orbs really helped with this.  (I know, in this photo the topper is tilting forward- the shallow dustboard didn't allow the workroom valet to hold it straight.) 

I was very happy with the way this shade turned out, and I'll be confident about making more.

 

 

The last shade photographed in the old workroom!

Sleek Padded Fascia for Shades

A client requested a 4" x 1/2" padded wood fascia for shades- basically a super mini cornice without returns.  These shades were mounted inside the window.

This was something new for us, as was the request for 4" fold spacing on a hobbled shade- much closer folds than the norm.

To keep the fascia sleek and modern, I chose a fusible dacron batting with little bulk to soften the board without making it puffy..

As you can see, the shroud is ladder tape, which also serves as the hobbling tape- so no rings were needed.  I basted across the board line of the shade, and securely hand-tacked the ladder tape to the board line. 

Double-sided sticky tape was run at the intersection of the boards, intended to keep the fabric in place while preparing to staple.

That worked out well!  I just pressed the shade in place, following the penciled board line.

An upholstery staple gun gets right into the corners.  Since all that was holding the shade in place and to shape, I made sure to use plenty of staples to prevent sagging.

The excess was rolled down and under and stapled to finish.

 

Ta-da!