Up for air- and into the clouds

Where to start?  The past few weeks have been so busy!
The project that eclipses all else at the moment is an 8000 sq ft house with- at last count- 38 windows getting shades.  We're a little over halfway through the shades and other treatments, and then there will be draperies for the biggest windows.

My favorite treatment so far, in this house, is the little girl's room.

She requested a cloud under the rainbow that is painted over the window and up onto the ceiling painted with blue sky and clouds.  We looked at a photo of a cloud made out of what looked like cotton balls, and I thought, that's nice enough, but I can take it a little further.

My inspiration was sheer, rouched panels we made last year.  I thought I could extend the rouched top into a valance that would span the window.

This little mock-up illustrated my idea for the client......

and then Denise selected a pretty voile with little sequin-like heat-set dots in multicolored pastels.  The resulting cloud looks like the sunrise.

Amazingly, about 12 yds of fabric were used for the valance alone!  It was cut into strips, shirred, and attached to the cloud-cutout fascia made of Firmaflex, letting the cloud shape show through. Shirred single width panels frame out the window.
In the end, the cloud valance extends across the window, the panels hanging beneath it.
White raw silk shades (ribbed, lined with French blackout, with clutch lift systems) provide privacy.

This week it's all ruffles

My awesome Johnson Ruffler got a total workout this week.  This little machine is one of the best workroom investments I've ever made.

This bedding package has three ruffled products: a bedskirt, inset rouched velvet panels on the duvet cover, and a top-sewn silk ruffle on the pillows.
We did not fabricate the headboard.  Or the dog.

Quite a pile of ruffles!

The velvet was first overlocked, then ruffled on each side.

The rouched strip was applied over the full width of tapestry.  First the lip cord was basted to the tapestry, then the rouching sewn right sides together then flipped to the edge.  The edges were basted together and then the second row of lip cord applied, then the outer band.  This method worked surprisingly easily, especially considering all three fabrics are upholstery weight.

To fill a duvet cover, I lay it wrong side out on the work table, snap the comforter to its corresponding snap tabs in the cover, then work it through the opening, duvet and cover all as one, and zip it up.  It takes awhile but it's easier than stuffing the comforter into the cover right side out and trying to reach inside to fasten the snaps. 

Bedskirt- what can I say?   The ruffler handled the velvet squares with professional calm at 3x fullness.

The silk was sewn into a tube, turned right side out, and pressed with the seam 1" from the edge.  Then it was fed through the ruffler right over that seam line (which is on the wrong side), and again, the ruffler performed like a pro.

The finished ruffle was first basted to the face of the pillow with a narrow strip of double-sided adhesive tape, then topstitched over the ruffling stitch. 

Three of those!

And some sleek throw pillows (no ruffles!) to top it all off.