More sheer Roman shades

Another very striking sheer stripe has been turned into Roman shades. 

The success of a sheer shade is all about how well-behaved the fabric is by nature.  This one folded up beautifully- it was a good choice.

The weight bar was covered in fabric tubing before being inserted into its pocket.

Again we used the cord loop shroud and it is nearly unnoticeable.

Fab Fabric Friday, and a Gathered London

This is exquisite fabric: silk, with embroidery over applique.

Each flower and leaf is gorgeous.

It became interlined draperies and a gathered London shade.

It's one of the most beautiful embroidered silks I've ever worked with.

You're thinking, what a lazy post!

Yes, I agree.  I've got so many photos of recent projects, and not enough time to get them posted.  I'll try to catch up soon.

Shirred valance with header

This has always been a favorite treatment of mine.

Besides this 45" valance, there were two at 100".   The fabric is bulky, and the valance interlined, so the fullness is only a little more than double.

Flat 3/8" bias cordless welting (or flange) trimmed the bottom.

A separate header- a 1x4- was interlined and welted at the bottom.

The welting is made with fusible web, to prevent buckling or stretching.

The welting was applied to the bottom of the header with adhesive tape, again to prevent unevenness and buckling.

The valance was shirred and stapled and the dustboard covered, then the header was secured to the valance, and it was done!

Remembering Steve Jobs

May his joy in excellence inspire us.

Mock Roman Valance

The client wanted a mock roman valance.  Usually this means evenly spaced folds of equal size, but she had in mind something that looked more like a roman shade actually pulled up............ like this:

These valances go over the sheer shades that were bound in the same orange upholstery fabric.

This is a variation on a flat-back hobbled roman. 

This treatment took some rumination and experimentation.  I like how it turned out, and I like the clean back.  Next time I know how to make it without the horizontal stitching lines showing.  

Sheer shade with skinny upholstery fabric band

This warm sheer stripe shade required a little bit of special handling......

..... because it was banded at the bottom with a skinny strip of pumpkin-colored upholstery weight fabric.

The shade was laid out on the fabric gridded table top, hemmed on the sides, and pinned in place.

Camel-colored cord loop shroud was pinned in place, too, and tacked to the fabric along with the clear rings.  You can't even see the little monofilament loops which will shroud the lift cord when the shade is strung.
The grid makes it easy to place the rings without marking, since you can see through the sheer!

For the bottom weight bar pocket and hem, a separate strip was folded in half and placed on the back of the shade.  Masking tape was helpful for marking, basting, and stabilizing.  The basting line of red thread marked the bottom of the shade and held the three layers together.

The skinny strip of orange fabric was sewn to the right side, and the red basting line made it easy to line them up.  Do you see the mistake I made?  This photo shows the banding pinned next to the wrong side- an error I didn't notice til it was sewn, so I had to take it off and re-sew it to the right side.

Once I fixed that little boo-boo, the layers were trimmed close to the stitching line.

Then the band was turned to the back, carefully pressed, then hand-stitched.

Nice!
Technically I think this is actually a binding rather than a band. 

The pocket was sewn in the hem strip, then the strip was sewn to the shade body following the masking tape stitching line.  The shroud was extended down to the pocket, looped, and secured with the stitching line.  Later the loose end was tied to the bottom ring for extra security.

Here's the finished bottom before the weight bar was inserted.

A scrap of warm tan fabric served to create a cover for the weight bar. The tan lift cord blends with the fabric and the cord loop shroud.

The same tan fabric was used to cover the board, which you can see in this shot of the back.   Also you can see how nicely the unobtrusive cord loop shroud shirrs up as the shade is raised.

There were valance for these shades, too, out of the orange fabric, and I'll show those next time.

Riding on the Marrakesh Express

"Marrakech" by Manuel Canovas

My first thought when associating this fabric with window treatments would have to be "cornice."

But alas, the designer wanted hobbled shades- short hobbled shades that will be permanently pulled up to act as a valance.

There are two main motifs per repeat to be juggled and re-arranged in a pleasing way.

In the process of planning this project I folded and  taped out various possible arrangements, first trying to keep the medallions sort of symmetrical:





But after experimenting more I liked this version better:

Yes, that's my foot on the table.....

It looked a little cluttered so I modified that layout with 7" folds instead of 6" folds, which opened the pattern up a little more:

I kept the tapes on throughout the fabrication process.  That pattern was making me dizzy.  Since the fabric was unlined, I was able to see the pattern on the wrong side well enough to make it easy to sew the pockets.  It was hemmed by hand, and the ends of the pockets had to be hand-sewn as well because the layers were too thick to fit under the presser foot.

The shades matched each other perfectly.  I still think a cornice would have showed off the fabric more effectively, or at least, a cornice version of a mock hobbled roman which would have eliminated all that bulk on the sides. 

Still, they turned out well.... and I kept in mind that they would be pulled up so only the three top folds would be showing.   I think that if you look at just the top three folds, the presentation is pretty well balanced.