An Update, an Aha Moment, and a Mock-Up

I thought I should post an update on the applique shower curtain and shade we made for Katherine Stern.
When we installed this shower curtain, the header was improvised with a facing to the back enclosing clear buckram, and drapery pins, to make a "mock" ripplefold, using glides in the Aria H-Rail pole from Rowley.

The reason we had to improvise was- the ripplefold carrier in the fullness we needed was on backorder, and would not be in in time for a scheduled photoshoot.  So once the components came in, I brought the curtain back to the studio to modify, and the pole to rig.  The difference is possibly not noticeable to most people, but we were totally thrilled with the new look.

It was important to make the folds follow the pattern, so I had to improvise with the tape.  After I took apart the header and carefully secured it with pins, I cut the tape up into pieces, then used double-sided tape to place the sections to line the snaps up with the pattern. 
Then all I had to do was sew both sides, and re-sew the facing, by hand.  I made sure to catch through to the right side in the embroidered area, to keep the fabric from sagging on the front.
It might have been unnecessary, but I re-inserted the clear buckram.  I thought that since the tape was pieced the header might benefit from the extra support. 
I will say, all this made me very nervous.  I didn't actually know what I was doing until I started doing it.  Luckily I did the right thing!......

I'm not gonna lie, Ripplefold has been a hard concept for me to internalize.  It's hard enough with a solid fabric, but with a pattern you really have to be able to visualize how to plan.  Recently I made this little sample, and even after making it I didn't quite get it.

It wasn't until I looked at it from directly above that I had my "AHA MOMENT"- the carriers must be planned to fall BETWEEN the motifs that you want rippling to the front and the back!

Once again proving that a picture is worth a thousand words.  And a mock-up is worth a thousand pictures!
I have a ripplefold curtain coming up with a geometric pattern with a 6.875" horizontal repeat.  I'll be doing a mockup of that for sure.  The whole thing is one panel 134" wide and I want to know what I'm doing before I do it!

Oh! and- here's one result of that photoshoot.  I love how the photographer used the mirror!  This photo gives you a better idea of context for the shower curtain and shade.  Check out Katherine's website to see more of her fabulous work.

I want to do stuff like this all day, every day!

These applique borders are the most fun I've had sewing in awhile.  Fabricated for Katherine Stern, the shade and shower curtain presented a surprising and satisfying interplay of pattern and color against the Japanese cherry blossom wallpaper pattern.  Too bad you can't see the sink, accessories, and fittings finishes!  Next week I'll try to remember to take another picture.  If you love color and pattern, I urge you to check out Katherine's website.  Her color sense is so awesome!  You'll see how this fits in perfectly with her style.

The embroidered fabric was cutout and appliqued onto the solid purple which then was banded in black.

Wonder Under is just the product for a project like this.  I fused strips onto the back of the area of the embroidery that was to be cut out.  Before cutting I made slash cuts into the corners to help get a clean cut.

I will say that it did take quite a while to finish cutting!  I used several pairs of scissors: this large Fiskars worked well on the curves, but I needed short snips and longer sharp pointed shears for other cutting steps.

To begin the shade, I laid out the purple fabric at the exact finished width.

I carefully laid the cut out shade fabric and pressed it into place until the pattern was straight horizontally and vertically, then peeled off the Wonder Under paper.

Lots of steam fused the embroidered fabric onto the purple.

Next I was off to the sewing machine with the fabric.  If I thought cutting was tedious, this was even more so!  It was slow going, but it worked.

I cut bias strips for the 1/2" banding; in retrospect I think it would've been easier if they'd been cut on the grain.  I was very careful!

Because the band was on the bias I had to do some very meticulous pressing as I wrapped the band to avoid puckering.

So then I made the shade as usual; here it is all done, on the table.

I didn't want any stitching on the front, so behind the hem there's a weight bar tube that's tacked at the rings.  I guess you really can't see it, but it's my new favorite way to do the bottoms of shades.

The shower curtain banding was made the same way.  It was lined, and the black banding wrapped to form the side hems.  We loved how the embroidery played off the wallpaper floral.

The shower curtain is hung on Rowley's Aria H-Rail pole in Antique Brass, with glides.  It's a flat panel with hooks, but next week I'm going to take it all down and modify it for Ripplefold.  I didn't have the correct fullness carriers for Ripplefold, but there was a photo shoot the next day and it HAD to go in!
As Tim Gunn says: "Make it work!"