Retro Yellow!

Workrooms receive all sorts of fabrics for creating home furnishings, and it's difficult sometimes to imagine some fabrics in their eventual homes.  One thing you learn as a wholesale workroom: make no presuppositions, because context is everything!  Such was the case with this two-room project we fabricated for Crosstown Shade and Glass.

We were jolted by this brilliant yellow fabric, a Madcap Cottage print from Robert Allen, and couldn't imagine how it was going to look made up.  It was such a joy to work with these fresh colors and a thrill to see the final product installed.
Both of the treatments, above, were a little under 12' wide.  The swags were wider than a width of fabric, so the cuts were pieced, then aligned precisely on the table so we could stack cut.

The Parkhill Swag System makes swag-making a breeze.  I'm glad, however, that I had years of practice making swags without it, first with M'Fay patterns, and later drafting by hand using Ann Johnson's book "Anatomy of a Swag."  Those early experiences made it easier for me to improvise using the Parkhill.
Anyhow, using the Parkhill chart we set the template and marked the shape for cutting.

The beauty of the Parkhill is the finger cutouts which allow mounting with minimal bulk on the board.

Mounting the straight window was textbook, but mounting the bay swags was fiddly, requiring some improvisation.  For the swags overlapping the angle, I wanted all of the folds to stack on the "arms" of the bay which resulted in some excess fabric to disguise.   To achieve that I snuck in a 7th fold on each of those two swags in the angle.  

 In addition to the bay angles, we also had to find a way to trick the eye into believing that the two "arms" of the bay were the same size; in reality, the right arm is 2" longer.  I think we pulled it off.

 And, hey, if you've read this far, please accept my apology for the sparse posting so far this year- January was a crazy month. 

Are you tired of swags yet?

Another swag order that was perfect for my new Parkhill template system..... it has paid for itself already in time saved!   Bring 'em on!

Until I get more comfortable with the calculations, I'm going to mock up each swag first.  Good thing I did with this one, because I had made a mistake.   Here's the corrected mockup, in front of another mockup for a shade project I'll be showing off shortly. 

I just love how, like magic, the swag "fingers" just lay down in a nice straight line, and a quick "snap" of the fabric produces perfect swag folds.

Another thing I've learned: hang the treatment up before finishing the ends and the top of the board, so if adjustments need to be made, there won't be lots of tedious unstapling.  I realized that the center swag had to be nudged forward because layering it over the other swags created take-up and the center swag looked too short.  An easy fix, with double-sided tape!

Swags!

This past spring I made some velvet pole swag treatments.  I drafted the pattern myself using Ann Johnson's book and was pleased with the results, but the velvet caused me a lot of grief due to the bulk.  I swore I'd never suffer again making swags.

By wonderful coincidence, a workroom that was going out of business had a Parkhill swag system for sale at about half the price of new- and I jumped on the opportunity.  The instructions came on an old video so I called Scot Robbins, the US distributor/rep, and he sent me a DVD.

Naturally I did not have a single swag order until last month, and I wondered if I'd made a mistake; but finally I had the chance to use it.  First I mocked up a sample swag the size of the six I had to make.

What makes the Parkhill system so easy to use is the adjustable template which creates fingers that are stapled to the board side by side, and the book of tables for every possible variation.  Fusible tape seals the face and lining together and eliminates virtually all excess bulk.    

I took my time fabricating the actual swags; I was still a little nervous.  But once they were done, I examined them carefully for anything unacceptable and discovered that they were.... well, perfect.  There are two treatments, mirror images of each other.

An amazing bonus to the system is the jabot pleating jig which is really fun to use AND eliminates pleating anxiety.

I'm a believer!  I'll still need my pattern-drafting skills- in fact I'm drafting some raised swags this week that are totally non-conforming to any hybrid swag style I can find, so I'm deep into the mocking-up process right now.  But for standard swags, you can't beat the Parkhill system for speed and accuracy.  Scot says that as I grow more experienced using it, I'll be able to figure out how to use it for unusual swags, like arched, asymmetrical, etc.  That will be fun, but right now I'm just thrilled to have it for standard swags.