Update on the Top-Down Shades

The shades shown in the previous post, just below this one, were completed and installed a week ago.  Pictures?  No, sorry, no pictures! 

These were top-down only hobbled shades with a Rollease clutch and a self-fabric valance.  There were three layers of fabric: the face fabric was a semi-sheer with a woven pattern, a middle layer of a nearly-upholstery weight woven mini-diamond, and the outer back was blackout- the new Bella Notte "Silky" from Angel's Distributing.
There were five shades, all with 2" banding in the mini-diamond on 3 sides with mitered bottom corners.
Shall I mention now that three of the five were side-by-side in a bay window?
Rowley's new encased cord served as both the hobbling tape and the lift cord.  Luckily, for hobbled shades the encased cord can be machine-sewn, saving a bit of time.

This was by far the most complicated job I have ever done, both physically and mentally.
Where shall I begin???

Right off the bat, the first challenge was banding the sheer.  Glue-basting helped keep the layers from shifting, but none of my sewing experience could mitigate the take-up that naturally occurs whenever two fabrics are sewn together.  The pattern was nice and straight at the bottom, but had a big downward smile at the top.  Usually you try to compromise and put the skewed end wherever it would be least noticeable, but with a top-down shade, both top and bottom are prominent!

Once the three fabrics were layered and the side hems pressed in, the lines for the rib pockets were drawn with that miraculous disappearing purple pen.  Some blackouts won't hold that purple mark for long, but fortunately the new "Silky" did.
The new "hazardous loop" standards prevent us from making a combined fabric-plus-tape that exceeds 16.9", which means that with 6" "ring" spacing, the rows for pockets can't be more than 9.9" apart.  I was able to stagger the repeats at about 9.5", and the "ring" spacing was 5.75", so the pattern on the folds were consistent on every other fold, AND it met with the hazardous loop guidelines. 

The pockets for the ribs were relatively easy to sew, with plenty of pinning, but unfortunately the textured sheer was the inside of the pocket and made inserting the ribs a difficult task.  Many of the pockets had to be strategically opened to get the ribs through.  Rowley's clear plastic ribs made it through okay, but that was plan B- originally I wanted to use the 1/8" fiberglass ribs.  But they caught on the fabric and would not slide through, and would have caused runs in the fabric if we'd tried to force them.

But back to the pockets.  There were 10 rib pockets, and I sewed every other one in the opposite direction, to keep the layers from shifting.  My arms are all torn and scabby from the pins gouging them while I wrangled with the very heavy shades at the sewing machine.  The next step, sewing on the encased cord by machine, was probably the easiest part of the whole job.  I kept the top unfinished until all five shades were done, so I could lay them out and make sure the pattern was consistent on all.

Did I mention yet that three of these shades were side-by-side in a bay window?  Oh, yeah.  I did.  So it was essential that the folds line up perfectly with each other on each shade.

That part was so totally not fun.  I made good use of the printed grid canvas and the purple pen, and drew all over the table and made notes right on the canvas about where each fold needed to fall and what part of the pattern had to be at the very top.

Remember the part about how the pattern turned from straight lines into a downward smile towards the top of the shade?  Well, I have no idea how, but by the time it was all done, that line seemed less smiley, and also the busy-ness of the folds and little flowers made the skew less noticeable.

After the pocket for the top was pressed in, John put in the little brass grommets that allow the lift cords out of the pocket.  Then the pocket was sewn- and at that moment I realized the top of the tape needed to be sewn accurately into the seam- yet another step I hadn't been able to think through until I was actually doing it.

These shades had a regular 3/8" round bottom weight bar, but they also needed a top bar that is very rigid which keeps the top of the shade straight, with no sway.  Shopping with John one day in the electrical department at Home Depot, we found something called "wire molding" which is extremely strong metal housing for running wires.  We bought that for the top weight bar because it had virtually no flex in either direction.  It turned out to be perfect.  Brilliant John used the reciprocating saw with the compressor (a non-manual hacksaw) to cut grooves in the metal and we wound the cord around the bar making sure it was settled into the groove so it couldn't slip.  After the two middle cords were tied on this way (there were 4 lift lines) we borrowed again from the electricians and use a wire  snaking technique to get the strings through the pocket, followed by the bar.  I know I'm not describing this well.  (I should make a YouTube video.  Yeah, in my spare time!)  Anyhow, it worked, and let the record show that I would never have been able to make these shades without John's imaginative engineering!

I also must mention that I couldn't have made them by the deadline without a dear friend's patient and good-natured stubborn persistence- she put in a whole back-breaking day of what I had promised as "fun" and "interesting" tedium, did not walk out on me, AND never complained!

Leveling a top-down shade is a major ordeal, and having to level five of them identically is just cruel and unusual.  We were not going to be present at the installation, so we had to come up with a way to make all the lines adjustable.  The orbs used for shades were the answer.  These shades have two sets of lines:  the guide cords which set the length, and the operating cords.  We used orbs at each end of each line, and tied them off leaving a long tail.  This allowed the installer to make slight adjustments.

We were thrilled when we finally heard back from the decorator on installation day that everything had gone well and the next day we heard that the man of the house had called the decorator with his compliments on the job!!!

I feel that I am babbling now- I am sure that no one reading this has the slightest idea what I'm talking about, and I'd be astonished if anyone's made it to the end of this post.  I'm sorry I don't have photos.  The fabrication was just so intense, I had no time to stop and take pictures.  And this was one of those jobs I will never see installed.  But if anything you've read piques your curiosity and you have any questions about any of the process, please let me know and I'll try to be more thorough.

London shades and a fab fabric

Single and double London shades:

There were two of this size....

And two of these.

Definitely this is a fab fabric: gold silk, lightly ruched between vertical rows of a chain cording.   Hard to minimize the glare in the photo.

The widths were joined in the middle of the sections between the cord.  Because of the ruching it was nearly impossible to press the seams open.  I remembered this cool Rowenta travel iron/steamer that I bought years ago to take on installations but haven't used in awhile.  It fit nicely between the rows although the seams were still a pain in the neck to iron!

Also while I'm at it a quick acknowledgment of gratitude to the inventor of the amazing purple disappearing pen.  I'd be lost without this super-useful tool.  Often I draw a grid on the backs of shades for spacing the rings and/or encased cord tapes.  The purple ink usually disappears quickly, and if it lingers, the other end of the pen is the eraser.

One more thing, I bought Napped Sateen in the new 110" width, from Angel's Distributing, for these shades, and it made the lining process a breeze!

Pink Day

Coordinating window treatments and pillows were made for two sisters whose rooms are across the hall from each other.  The round pillows are boxed, and small square pillows and shams have a flat flange that is gathered in the corners. 
All welting and banding is done in the same pink dot that covers the window seat cushion.

Over the window seat in the little sister's bedroom is an Imperial valance out of a crazy-quilt print.  The back is faced so the dot is visible peeking out from behind the horns.  Blackout lining inside eliminates the shadow the 4" shaped facing would have cast.  The dot worked nicely as 3/8" welting.

The older daughter's room has a 12' window with a flat, shaped, banded valance.  Here it is laid out on the table.   Luckily this large polka-dot could be railroaded.   The 1/2" banding was done binding-style.

To draft the pattern for the bottom serpentine silhouette, I drew the general shape right onto the fabric with a purple disappearing pen.  Then I laid gridded paper over my roughly sketched line to begin drafting the pattern.  The 12' section has 7 scallops.  The serpentine shape continues onto the separate 2' sections at each side for the small windows at right angles to the 12' window.

After cutting the face I laid it wrong sides together against napped lining, cut, and pinned well.  The bias banding strips were a little over 2" wide; it stretched enough to ease around the curves with a 1/2" seam allowance; then wrapped perfectly around to the back to make a 1/2" band on the front.   This is just like binding a quilt.

To finish the back, there are 3 options- top-stitch by machine from the front side, bond with glue or other adhesive, or hand-sew.  I chose to top-stitch-in-the-ditch for this product since the fabrics were well-behaved and they didn't warp with stitching.

More on Efficiency

I have been working on some hobbled shades.  Since these have a lot of steps, I thought I'd showcase one shot that illustrated as many steps as possible.
For shades, as for drapery panels, I have found that you get not only the best product but also the most efficient use of time if you leave the product on the table for as many steps as possible.

For hobbled shades,  the fabric is laid face down and the lining over it, squared up, then the side hems are pressed in, but not secured yet.

The bottom will be made in various ways, depending on the style, trim if any, and the customer's preference.  For these shades I folded up a double 4" hem and hand-sewed it.

Next the fold lines for the rib pockets are marked.
Here, we use disappearing purple pens.  I don't know what we'd do without those!
And then the fold lines are pinned, pins all in the same direction. 
As long as the straightedge is right there, the marks are made for the rings.  If three lines are marked, the straightedge can be laid down to mark the remaining rows.

Now the side hems are secured.  Depending on the fabric, they might be hand-sewn, adhered with adhesive tape, or blindhemmed.  Machine blindhemming is a rarely used method here.  We've blindhemmed side shade hems maybe twice, ever.  
For these shades, adhesive tape is applied.  Look at the right side of the picture where a straightedge is holding back the opened-up side hem to reveal the tape.  I want to apply segments of tape leaving 1" on each side of the fold line without tape, because this tape is not nice to machine needles and I want to avoid having to sew over it.
The adhesive is a secure method but it is used only when some amount of machine stitching will be securing the layers somewhere- in this case, the rib pockets.

The twill tapes that will be "hobbling" the folds are laid out on the far right and marked, in this case in 6" increments, and brought to the sewing machine with the shades.


There are three steps the sewing machine will be used for. 
At the sewing machine first the folded pocket lines will be sewn 3/4" from the fold, making a right turn at the end of the row to close the pocket on one end.  I use thread that matches the face fabric, not the lining, because I want the thread to blend in at the side hems, unless it's a really dark fabric.  And then, I use white for the lining sections and color matched thread for the side hem bits.  A pain in the neck, but.  For these shades I used a pale yellow which blended in with both lining and face fabric.
The tapes, all ready and marked, are sewn behind the bottom row on the row's stitching line.

Now the rings can be sewn and ribs inserted into the pockets, and then it goes back to the straight stitch machine which hopefully is still threaded with the matching thread to sew up the open ends of the pockets. 
Ready for stapling & stringing!  The shade was on the table once, and not moved til all was marked and secured.
The indispensible tools for maximum efficiency on this project: purple disappearing pen, and the gridded canvas table cover.

More on Hobbled Shades

Well, here we are, the shades are ready to be stapled and strung. See the big mess on the right? That's the shades with the tapes and rings all sewn.
For this order of 3 shades, there were a total of 138 rings to be sewn.
Does that sound tedious?!?!? You bet it is!
How do I do it?
Well, it helps to have a great audio library.
My Van Morrison collection alone would take about 7 hours to listen through. Go to the bathroom, go open iTunes, get the phone and a cup of coffee and a bottle of water next to you, sit down at the sewing machine, and start listening to a song. Listen to another song. Another. And when it just seems you can't sew on another ring, tell yourself that at the very least you can listen to one more song!
By the time Van gets to "Comfortably Numb," the last song in an album that begin with a "V" and therefore at the end of the collection- you've done it!


Here you see a closeup of the pockets for ribs which give the shade the ease of function that makes a hobbled shade worthwhile. I don't know if you can see or not, but I've numbered the rows with that magic purple disappearing ink pen. That's to help keep track while sewing the rings. Do you wonder if we ever miss a row? skip a mark on the tape? Forget the last ring? Oh yeah, you know it happens. The numbers help, as long as you remember the last number you did.

I believe that the universe is just numbers, manifested in an infinite number of ways. And when you take a bunch of numbers and apply them to fabric in the pattern of a hobbled shade, you eventually create order out of the chaos.....
ta-da!

Here are the 3 shades- laid out on the table ready for stapling and stringing!
Not today, though. Enough already!
What's for dinner?