Salvaging a disaster

We were asked to remake panels that had never been hung.  Unfortunately the workmanship had been so substandard that the homeowner kept them in her closet for several years.  She wanted to be able to use the Swedish Home cotton print since bedding and other items had also been made from it.





I salvaged what was usable of the main fabric, and Kim Freeman worked with the homeowner to choose a coordinating fabric and trim.  Samuel and Sons' amazing skinny lip cord in blue defined the line between the main fabric and the bias checked band.

The original curtains were ambitious, but much had gone wrong.   Banding around 3 sides was trimmed with lip cord with the lip removed and applied with visible hot-glue.  The mitered check did not match anywhere, and attempts at repairing it with hand-stitches were obvious.  The pleats were not sewn; a slip of buckram was tucked into the back with a single tack. Interlining had been roughly cut, unhemmed, and didn't reach the face fabric hemline, which, incidentally, was topstitched, unevenly.  The lining hem varied from 1" to 3" and was crooked.  Masking tape had been left on on the wrong side, and left orange stained stripes.  To top it off, one panel had been made upside down!

Once the panels had been dismantled and cut evenly, banding was needed to add to the length.  Skinny lip cord edged the top and bottom, between the face fabric and bias checked banding.

Two-finger pinch pleats are pleated to the check pattern, rather than the print, because the floral motifs were unevenly distributed across the width.  I love fat, interlined pinch pleats!  The pleats are tacked  invisibly, at the lip cord, with blue thread.

Underneath, an inside mount flat Roman shade, French blackout lined, is trimmed in the same lip cord and bias band.

In an adjacent bedroom, French blackout roman shades were made from ticking, also from Swedish Home.   Here Kim chose a horizontal striped banding for the bottom.

Gold mesh curtains

Yesterday I forgot to post the pictures of the curtains that go over those unlined hobbled shades.

This mesh is viscose and poly.  It took the iron well, pressed readily, and was easy to sew.  It's very fluid, and drapes beautifully.   Because the curtains will be inside mounted, we kept the fullness down by making two-finger French pleats.  

The curtains are short, so we used 2" translucent buckram.   Side and bottom hems were all hand-sewn, as well as the little pinches for the pleats.  In fact, the only machine sewing is the where the pleats are sewn.

Westchester Showhouse 2013

The Cerebral Palsy of Westchester 2013 Showhouse is in full swing, and once again Leatherwood Design Co has a presence at this prestigious event, in Kim Freeman's Breakfast Room, photographed here by Susie Cushner.

This linen stripe features diminutive 2-finger pleats which draw the eye upward and lengthen the window.

A tiny silk loop fringe is sewn into the lead edge, and blends in so well with the fabric's embroidered stripe that it looks like part of the fabric.

The plaster walls would not support the hardware, so the poles were hung on the molding, an old-fashioned look that is appropriate for an older home.   The narrow rod profile and the short 2" pleat keep the installation in the right proportion for the molding.

More on mock-ups: part 2- the draperies

 

Designer Kim Freeman chose this Corragio poly/linen patterned sheer, trimmed with an elaborate blue braid, for the same NYC apartment with the wool tableskirt in the previous post. 

The entire curtain is hand-sewn, including the trim.  To keep the fullness down, we used two-finger front-tacked pinches, pleated to pattern.  3" clear buckram makes a flexible header.

Plain off-white sheer served as the lining.  The hem on the lead edges is 4" wide so the trim could be centered over the stripey part of the pattern.  It needed to be bulky enough to support the heavy trim. 

To help the homeowner visualize her future curtains, I made a hand-sewn mockup out of a similar face fabric and lined it with the sheer we'd be using, showing 5 different pleat options. 

On the back I described the style and fullness of each pleat which helped the client and designer choose.

Because the rod had to be positioned in a small space inside a curved molding, the rod was installed with the rings, then Kim hung a long strip of fabric that I had pleated ahead of time, and she marked where she wanted the hemline.

That was my mockup for the finished length!

Photo courtesy of Kim Freeman Style and Design

We don't yet have good pictures of the installed curtains, but here is Kim's iPhone shot for now.  In one of the tablecloth pictures in the previous post, you can see the curtains in the background.

Totally blacking out drapery panels

Our NYC client is hoping for total blackout from her new draperies.  They're being installed this morning so I'll update this post with pictures if "someone" sends me any!  These upholstery weight panels have 2" 2-finger pleats tacked 1" down from the top, at approximately double fullnesss, with a low-bulk top.  The tack thread is wrapped around the front of the pleat rather than stabbed through the sides.

I tried to do everything humanly possible to be sure light did not bleed through any stitch holes.  We did not blindstitch the lead edge; instead we sewed it, turned, then sewed in an extra strip of blackout to cover the first stitch line, folded back 1/4" to be sure the entire lead edge is filled with blackout.  Not easy to describe, but it worked perfectly.

For the lining seams, we bonded double-sided adhesive tape to the wrong side of the blackout, then cut into 3/8" strips with a rotary cutter.

Then the strips were adhered to the seams.  Merlyn, if you're reading this, THANK YOU for this tip! 

It looked fine as it was but we decided to cover the strip with gimp, also using double-sided adhesive tape.

Short pieces of blackout "bandaid" strip were applied over the pleat seams- another place where light sneaks through.   Leftover blackout strips were sent with the installer so he can cover up anyplace that I might have missed.
Next time I think I might go ahead and blind-stitch or hand-sew a rolled lead edge border, as usual, and adhere a blackout-lined coordinating gimp or other flat trim over the seamline.  I think it could be a beautiful detail.

Lovely Lavender

How pretty are these panels??  I've always wanted to make a drapery exactly like this-

and finally someone ordered it.  A contrast scalloped lead edge-

with microcord- on the straight side of the band, that is; what looks like microcord on the scallop (at the bottom of the photo) is actually the back side of the band, with the fabric rolled around from the front to give a clean front edge.

My favorite two-finger pinch pleats.

The scallop was drafted onto pattern paper then drawn with purple pen onto the fabric.  Both the front and the facing were reinforced with Rowley's fabric stabilizer, which made this soft linen easy to work with. 

Using a tight machine stitch, the scallop was sewn along the drawn line, then trimmed to a little under 1/4".  The concave parts of the curve are clipped, to let the seam allowance stretch out when the fabric is turned to the right side.  The convex parts of the curve are notched, to reduce the bulk in the seam allowance when the fabric is turned.

We sewed the microcord to the scallop lead edge, then to the drapery.   I guess that was the most tense part of the day, and picture-taking was forgotten about!
The fabric stabilizer made all the difference- the band pressed out perfectly to shape, and without a pucker.
With a finished length of 100", I made the band 100.5" long to allow for the possibility of a little shrinkage when it was sewn to the main drapery fabric- a good thing I made that allowance because it came out to 100" exactly.
 

The facing was hand-sewn to the panel, and encased the raw edges at the top and bottom.  Here's the back of the top.

I have to say, I love these panels!  They were installed yesterday, and I hope I eventually get a photo of them.  (hint!)

Finally- First Encased Cord Shade

It took awhile but here, finally, are a few pictures from last week's installation.

This is the first shade we've installed that has used the new encased lift cord from Rowley, which brings the shade into compliance with the new standards for corded window treatment safety.  It was easy to use, and I think it looks just fine from the back.

Instead of sewing rings, the tape is tacked by hand where the rings would have been.  It takes no more time than sewing rings would take.  The tape is strong but soft and shirrs up to practically nothing.

Here is the new tension device from Rollease which brings the bead chain loop into compliance.  The shade will not operate fully until the device is in place.  And it looks nice, too.  Like most of our shades, this one is operated with a standard Rollease clutch lift system.

The panels have my favorite pinch pleat style- fat two-finger pleats, hand-tacked with coordinating thread wrapping around the front of the pleat, rather than stabbed through the sides.
This is definitely not a low-bulk panel!  The heading is double-topped, meaning two layers of print, and one each of lining and interlining, in the back, along with the buckram.  I love the full, happy, bulky pleat all that fabric creates.

Wandering back to the dining room, I took a fresh shot of the draperies we made last year with the amazing orange faux panel.  Click here to read more about them.  Those pictures were taken before the room was finished; now it's ready for entertaining.