Uptown River View

John and I drive right by this building on Riverside Drive every time we go into the city, so it was cool to work with Denise Wenacur to create the  window treatments for this newly renovated apartment with an uptown river view.

The finished lengths were slightly different, so we worked with the pattern from the top down, and fudged the bottoms just enough to ensure the pleats were all the same.  Besides marking the fabric, I like to take a reference photo of the board line pattern placement.

With this pattern repeat, we were able to pleat to pattern matching every other motif.

The kitchen window is deeply recessed and hard to reach, so the shade will not be raised and lowered.  This finished length really didn't allow us to have the pleats fall the same as the living room shades, but it's far enough away, it doesn't matter; consistency with the board line pattern placement was more important.

I hope by now the homeowner has had time to unpack!

More Bordeaux?

I love the M'Fay Bordeaux valance because of its understated swag and graceful jabot.  I also love its versatility: with three basic shapes you can cover spaces of different sizes and achieve a unified look in a room.

Not shown on the pattern cover, however, is the beautiful single swag.  Just in time for Thanksgiving, we made 5 of these.  For the interlined silk in the dining room, we've extended the width to 45" and shortened up the jabots.

A bit of the jabot's curvaceousness is lost by shortening it, but it's still really pretty, and the tassel trim enhances the silhouette.

And for the adjacent living room, the same style in a different fabric is extended out to 52" wide.

With at least 3 sections, however, it's possible to use the center dip swags flanked by the tapered side swags, separated by a 5-pleat tail. 

For even wider areas, there are further possible combinations.  These were designed to follow the arched window.

But my favorite version is still the double tapered swag with a center tail- my workroom sample!

Indigo Dip-Dyed Shades

This order came with strict instructions on how to lay out the fabric for each shade.
The fabric is a beautiful dip-dyed-look linen that made my heart skip a beat.

The 4 shades are installed as 2 pairs, with the light side in the center of each pair, deepening outwards to that gorgeous blue.  I don't have photos of them in their new home, so this messy workroom shot will have to do.

 I had fun choosing which thread color to use for each column of lift lines.  I found 5 colors in my collection of buttonhole threads from Wawak.

The fabric grain was shifty but the weave was straight, so I basted along the board line before stapling.  I use masking tape to indicate which shade is which.  Did you notice in the photo above that the shades have "return flaps"- half of which match the pale side, and half of which are deep blue?

Ottoman Weave Fabric Pillows

Ottoman weave fabrics have a pronounced horizontal rib created by weaving a fine warp yarn with heavier filler yarns that become completely covered with the warp.  I recently made pillows for designer Susan Marocco with a cotton/poly ottoman fabric from Nancy Corzine. 

I should have known, but nevertheless somehow did not remember, that the horizontal rib is prone to raveling, and serging only makes it worse.   To my horror, the weft raveled all the way to the stitching line- everywhere!- especially at the zipper and the corners.  After I stuffed and zipped up the rectangular pillow covers, the fabric frayed to the stitching lines and began to fall apart! 
Luckily I was able to remake the pillows, using fusible fabric stablizer from Rowley Co.  I fused the stabilizer to the back then serged the edges.

I hadn't yet made the bolster, thank goodness.  I fused stabilizer to all the pieces, notched and clipped in order to ease the rectangle onto the circle, then applied a small strip of stabilizer to cover the clips.

For extra security and peace of mind, after sewing the pieces together, I re-serged to hold together the notches and clips.

You can see that I also zig-zagged at the clips for a little extra reinforcement.

The result- extremely substantial (albeit a little stiff) pillows that I was able to deliver to the client with no qualms about their durability.

Sleek Padded Fascia for Shades

A client requested a 4" x 1/2" padded wood fascia for shades- basically a super mini cornice without returns.  These shades were mounted inside the window.

This was something new for us, as was the request for 4" fold spacing on a hobbled shade- much closer folds than the norm.

To keep the fascia sleek and modern, I chose a fusible dacron batting with little bulk to soften the board without making it puffy..

As you can see, the shroud is ladder tape, which also serves as the hobbling tape- so no rings were needed.  I basted across the board line of the shade, and securely hand-tacked the ladder tape to the board line. 

Double-sided sticky tape was run at the intersection of the boards, intended to keep the fabric in place while preparing to staple.

That worked out well!  I just pressed the shade in place, following the penciled board line.

An upholstery staple gun gets right into the corners.  Since all that was holding the shade in place and to shape, I made sure to use plenty of staples to prevent sagging.

The excess was rolled down and under and stapled to finish.

 

Ta-da!

Sis Boom!

Today I played hooky from the workroom and went to the holiday sale event at Sis Boom in Wilton CT.  So, this is not a workroom post pe se, but, it was a fabric-related excursion, and it was so cool I have to share it!  Anything to do with fabric in any way eventually relates back to my workroom.

Jennifer Paganelli has been designing mouth-watering modern-retro fabrics that I've been admiring for ages, so I was determined to make it to her sale.  I first discovered her work when searching for interesting, alternative clothing sewing patterns, and found her blog.  I've been a fan ever since!  

For this event, her entire downstairs was transformed into a kaleidoscope of color and pattern: wonderful, fanciful, whimsical, and practical products made from her beautiful fabrics.  There was a sample section of dresses and skirts made with her clothing patterns; pillows, tassels, books and bags, quilt kits; original artwork; holiday decorations.......

 And did I say, fabric?  I came away with a collection of fat quarters, and tons of inspiration.  My mind is humming with ideas for ways to use these fabrics in my own work, and I'm looking forward to spending a few days- soon!- playing with these bright, cheerful patterns. 

I'll leave you with this: one of my very favorite things there- a pink Christmas tree:

Satin draperies

I'm going to make a Christmas commitment to you, people.  I'm going to say that I'm going to do a post every day until Dec. 23.  I'm not going to say I'm going to "try"- I'm just going to do it.  This autumn has been a very busy time for me, and I'm chagrined that the blog has been languishing!  I have such a backlog of projects to show you, with a busy 3 weeks of work ahead, that there is certainly enough material to meet my promise of a daily post.   Some might be just one photo- so think of them as stocking stuffers!

I owe a lot to this blog!  First, I've had wonderful experiences meeting so many of you, either via comments, email, or in person.  Second, this blog was the springboard for teaching opportunities that have been exciting and satisfying.  Third, I've learned that the sharing in this industry is incomparable and invaluable, and works both ways, and I thank you all for that.
So, Merry Christmas to you all, and here goes..........

I'm starting with this satin drapery project because Monica also just posted a photo and I thought it would be good to follow up with the workroom's back story.

There is satin, and then there is satin.
This double-wide nearly-white satin from JF Fabrics was an excellent choice by designer Monica Plotka.
Because there are no seams, there is no distortion or rippling- just sleek, cascading columns of beautiful fabric.  It made obvious sense to also use double-wide cotton napped sateen lining.  I wish all fabrics came with a double-wide option.  You know that all sewing creates take-up in fabric, right?, no matter how minuscule.  Eliminating that take-up shows off a fabric like satin to its best advantage.

The grey band is the perfect, understated finishing touch.  These draperies were entirely hand-sewn, and the attention was well worth the time.  After the band was sewn and pressed, we basted together the very edge of the band fabric and face fabric so the layers wouldn't sag inside after the band was wrapped.  With the lining laid in, the band was hand-sewn with an invisible ladder stitch.  Did I take photos of this process?  No, I'm sorry! But you can read more about the same hand-sewing and hand-basting techniques in recent blog posts, here and here.

 Besides being ultra-modern and right on trend, two-finger French pleats are a great heading treatment when less than 2.5x fullness is desired.  These panels were about 2.25x full, so the spaces are 4" and the pleats have 5" of fabric in them- not enough to make an attractive triple French pleat.  The pleats are hand-tacked.  We use a woven buckram, rather than a Pellon-type buckram, to give a soft, natural pleat.
When I work with a double-wide fabric, I plot out the spaces and pleats as I move the fabric across the table, so there are no calculations to do afterwards- just the side hem at the end.  This ensures perfect consistency.

And there you have it!  A beautifully designed project that exceeded my expectations- doesn't get any better than that.