Hobbled shades completed!

So, remember those disheveled piles of hobbled shades from a few days ago? Here they are, all done and ready for installation. The small one on the right on the stand is for a door. You can see the back, and what all those rows and ribs and tapes and rings were for.
I am pretty pleased with how these 3 shades came out.
See how I've cleverly avoided showing the workroom?? That's because it really is a big unphotogenic mess! If you're a client of mine and have been to my studio, you know exactly what I mean.
Thursday and Friday are going to be devoted to clean-up and getting the studio ready for its close-up. I'm stating this here so that I can be held accountable.

This is the biggest of the 7 Reverse Mount Rollease shades, on the table ready to be stapled & strung tomorrow. It's 110" wide and 60" long. Since it's blackout lined, all the rings are sewn by hand to keep the little holes as small as possible, and the holes are "painted" with blackout "goop" per customer request, to keep as much light out as possible.
See how I've written on the top of the shade? That's to remind me that it's a reverse mount so I don't staple it on backwards-- like I did with the other 6 and had to take them all off and re-staple them!
Tomorrow I will try to find a way to photograph at least some of the Reverse Mount Rollease shades. They can't be hung on the wall or on a stand, because the shade comes off the back of the board, and the valance comes off the front of the board, leaving no place to secure it.

Reverse Mount Shades

Well, I'm not going to show everything we've been working on today, because it's just too much, and the workroom is unimaginably messy. But tomorrow it'll all be finished, I hope, and I can show it all then.
We did get this shot of one of the shades. This is called a reverse mount clutch lift. The shade is mounted to the back of the board so the bead loop control can be in the front of the shade to make it easier to lift. Normally the bead loop goes behind the shade. Tomorrow valances will go on 7 of these and then they'll be done.
Isn't this a gorgeous fabric??? My favorite color combo- clashing red, orange, hot pink, coral, and purply mauve. The red is INTENSE!

Christmas quilt

What are we working on today? Well, this blog.
It's not so easy setting up a page layout. This is NOT how I planned it, but! I can't get the pictures to move where I want them.
I guess it's cheating to show work that I've done in the past, but you know, this is what we're working on today- getting ready to pack up and put away Christmas.
This Star quilt was the first of this type I made- about 20 years ago!- and I still love it.

what else did we work on today? DH built a table for the kitchen, and I made cookies to put on it! The recipe is from a friend and I still have the card she wrote it on, in I think 1972 when we were in college. I've written all over the card, made some changes, and spilled lots of stuff on it. The cookies are just as good, however.

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?

Hobbled shades

Hobbled shades!
There are 3 hobbled shades in this order, and they are ready for rings to be sewn on; then they'll be stapled & strung & packed up for delivery.


The photo on the left shows one shade all ready for sewing. It's been cut & pressed & tabled to size. Everything has been done right on the table and it's ready for the side hems to be blindstitched and the pockets for the ribs to be sewn.
The pencil points to the little mark that indicates ring placement.
The purple pen has disappearing ink; it points to the mark on the table indicating where the pocket lines are to be drawn- so all 3 shades will be marked in exactly the same increments. The pocket sewing lines drawn on the fabric will disappear by morning. The great thing about disappearing ink pens is that you can make notes on your table during a project and they'll be gone by the time you start the next one.

On the right are the shades with hems and pockets completed.
The beauty and magic of fabrication is that these shades, yesterday, were just 15 yardss of fabric on a roll; and this afternoon were piles of untamed mess. Now it's all neat and orderly and taking shape. Very satisfying!

What are we working on today?

Well, here it is, New Year's Day 2010, and my first post to my new blog- a Tabula Rasa.

I love this black fabric with the ribbon embroidery. I guess it's cheating to use this project to answer the question, "What are we working on today?" because we actually made it yesterday. But today it's being packed and delivered, so I'll let it count. We made this hobbled shade as well as a shower curtain.
Today we'll be working on more hobbled shades, and I'll try to remember to take a few photographs of the fabrication process.

Here are the front door and back door to my workroom, Leatherwood Design Co, where we fabricate window treatments and other soft fabric goods. The little shade on the back door was a temporary shade we made for a client while waiting for her back-ordered fabric.

My blog posts will be answering the question, "what are we working on today?" The work may be professional, or it may be personal. One thing for sure, it'll keep me working!

Tabula Rasa

OMG i have a blog!
Happy New Year- I think I will start this tomorrow!