A Dream-Catcher

What is this pocketbook doing here?...........
I know that I am supposed to be writing about "what are we working on today?"..... but, hey, this has NOT been a great week for completing photogenic work.
We had a storm, which ate up a whole day; I did spend it viewing webinars about work, but that's nothing you want to read about.
One whole day was a trip to the city, and another whole day was spent just driving and running errands.
We did manage to sew those lovely rose Kingston valances, a tableskirt, an ottoman slipcover; we altered some shades, wrote up a bunch of orders, prepped some fabric to be hand-sewn, and prepared an encouraging bunch of estimates (yay).  We went to Home Depot.  The rose valances were installed and the decorator loved them.  We ordered supplies, paid some bills, vacuumed, and did some picking up and dropping off.
Yeah, we've been very busy, but there are no pictures to show for it.  Sometimes that is what a custom window treatment business is like for a few days. 
So I wanted to show you something wonderful- something that epitomizes the kind of meandering, longing imagination that seizes me as the weekend approaches- something that symbolizes the kind of fantastic project I am working on in my mind!- a dream-catcher you might call it- and there it is, a pocketbook that I got from the Stormville Flea Market in Dutchess County, New York.
I say I got it, but actually I didn't buy it.  My sister did.  I was so envious!  She saw it first, so she had first dibs, and she bought it.
Imagine my joyous surprise when it turned out to be my Christmas present!
I wish we had gotten the name of the young woman who made it.  She had a lot of very cool re-purposed items like this which she had embellished, but she did not have a card, and I have no idea who she was or where she came from.
So now it's late enough on Friday that I really don't see myself doing anything useful here at the studio, yet early enough on Friday that I can leave and enjoy the most lovely winter afternoon outdoors- and I think that's exactly what I'll do, meander a bit with my mind full of that fanciful pocketbook carrying all my re-purposing and embellishing dreams.

Rose Taffeta Kingston Valance

Just in time for Valentine's Day, a sleek, shiny, slippery deep rose poly taffeta.
It looks the same from the right side and the wrong side, up or down, and the valance is self-lined; confusion reigned.




If you've ever made a Kingston valance, you know what I mean.  If you never have and want to know, just ask!
Graceful as Kingston valances are, it's astonishing how ungainly they are before they're done.  They seem to endure a prolonged adolescence, limbs askew, awkward contortions, before metamorphosing into a mature valance.
We make Kingstons with M'Fay's pattern- old school- and once you get the process locked into your head, it's not difficult, just cumbersome.  Really cumbersome and confusing! Luckily this had only 2 swag sections.
mbs askew, awkward contortions, before metamorphosing into something mature.
There have been many Kingstons I've had to sew twice because the first time around I sewed the swags to themselves, instead of to each other!
We tried to treat this fabric politely: reduced the bulk at the swag seams; pressed carefully on low temperature; hand-sewed the pleats.  The trim is sewn by machine- I know, I know- but really there wasn't much choice.  The fabric was so slippery that the layers kept bagging at the bottom seam, so an adhesive would only worsen the sagging.  It was almost impossible to even PIN this fabric, so trying to hand-sew the trim- with a NEEDLE!- was out of the question.  In the end, the stitching is not visible since there are no cascading jabots; and it keeps the layers under control.
And guess what, there are TWO of them aaarrrrgggghhhhhhh

Fab Fabric Friday, and other stuff

This gorgeous silk is our Fab Fabric Friday pick this week.  The photo does NOT do it justice!  This pattern is woven so delicately that it looks stenciled.  That's unusual because more often printed fabrics attempt to look woven.  I think this pattern resembles in appearance the Japanese printing technique called katazome, a stenciling technique using rice paste resist.  I've just discovered a textile artist, Kit Eastman, who creates some beautiful work this way- click here to see her work.  

  The customer who owns our Fab Fabric Friday silk had us make it into draperies a couple of years ago, and now she's moved and has re-purposed the fabric- we've made a coverlet/throw for the bottom of the bed, self-lined with Domette interlining inside, and re-using the delicate tassel trim.

The new draperies are this striped silk.  The stripe is sort of pressed in, so too much ironing flattens it out; we had to be careful with it.  The pleats are tacked at the top rather than the bottom, a Euro-style pleat rather than the traditional French pinch pleat.  It looks great with the stripes.
Here are the draperies and the coverlet together.

This customer also had us make a valance for the kitchen.  The floral is an English cotton print, with solid silk banding.

We have a nice "OOPS" situation to share with you.  Can you see, in the picture on the left, what is "OOPS" about it?
Well, look at the black flowers (you remember this fabric, right?)- not until the shade was all done and strung and everything did I realize that somehow the flowers weren't centered- OUCH!
So we unstrung and unstapled,  and re-fitted, re-stapled, and re-strung, and now feel a whole lot better.
And now it's Friday afternoon, snow's coming, and we're ready to go home!

A Pattern Matching Trick

 When a treatment is wider than a width of fabric, ususally 54", the fabric cuts must be joined together.
 Sometimes a really perfectly exact pattern match isn't critical, but when the treatment is flat, any imperfections in the joining will be obvious.
 An experienced seamstress can zoom through joining widths with just a few pins, or even none, and they'll always come out perfect.  Not many can do that!  I try, but it doesn't always turn out great, so  I keep practicing.
 However, some patterns challenge even the most experienced sewer, such as this one, where the pattern match varied by about 1/8", and the fabric had to be eased in to match.
Also there is a skinny little stem that grows from one width of fabric onto the other width.
I need help with this one!....................

 So, here's a trick for perfect matching.

 Most printed patterns match about 1/4" in from the edge.  On one width, press about 1/4" from the printed edge.
 Line it up with the second width and lay it out so it matches all the way up.
 Use a narrow strip of fusible webbing and press the folded edge into place, not quite at the fold but just out from it.
 Take the fabric to the sewing machine, unfold it, and carefully sew along the pressed fold.
 Trim the selvedges, press the seam open, and turn it over.  Press it again from the right side, being sure to fully open the seam with the iron.
 If there are any unmatched spots, it's easy to pick out a few stitches and re-sew them.

Voila!

What if, and why not?

I've been wandering around the studio with the camera, looking for something to photograph for today.  But we've got a bunch of stuff in a state of not-quite-completedness, and nothing struck me as very photogenic just yet.
Except this London shade.  You may remember this Fab Fabric Friday pick from a couple of weeks ago.  
The black flowers are appliqued on with stitching just in the middle so the edges are loose.  This is the second fabric of this type we've worked with recently, and it has me wondering: what if we made our own flowers and appliqued them onto a ground fabric with embroidery in the centers, then made it into shades?  Why not?

When Work is Not So Fab

The catch about doing custom work for a living is, I don't always love the treatment I'm being commissioned to make.  Maybe I don't care for the fabric.  Maybe I don't like the treatment.  Maybe the treatment is not the best way to use a fabric that I do like.  And so on.
Sometimes the job is REALLY HARD and the result of all the hard work is just not as great as all that work would warrant.
Sometimes you work really hard on a job that you really love, and when it's done you see that you've made a dumb mistake, like didn't center the motif as well as you could have, or, well, there are a hundred thousand dumb mistakes I could make.
Sometimes you work really hard on a job that you like, then get the dreaded phone call from the decorator who tells you the customer didn't like the fabric she chose, or the treatment she thought she loved.  Sometimes the customer- *gasp!*- doesn't like my workmanship!!
Yes, it happens.
HOWEVER-
Sometimes you open a fabric that you really loathe, and then once the work is completed it turns out that the fabric is wonderful after all.
Sometimes you deliver a job that you really didn't like, then get the dreaded phone call from the decorator who tells you that the customer LOVES it!
Sometimes you have a run of fabulously wonderful gorgeous fabrics to work with, and sometimes you get a run of fabrics that are a big yawn.
Well, so, you can see that it's an emotional see-saw, because I really care about making a job that is beautiful and well-made.

I guess recently I've had one of those runs of fabrics and treatments I'm not personally wild about, which, I suppose, is why I haven't been photographing them.
So I thought I'd post a picture or two of some treatments that I've made that make me smile.

I don't think my sisters and niece will mind if their kitchen window treatments are featured today.
I'm really thrilled with these, because I made everything with scraps and cheap trims I found at Walmart.
The light colorway was leftover from a lot of different batches, jobs over the years out a wildly popular fabric that I must have made a hundred pillows out of.  When I realized I didn't have enough for my design, I found scraps of the red colorway and had enough to complete the toppers.

On the valances I used several ribbons, some tassels, beads, and bias welting out of a little plaid.  There was just enough of a beautiful braid with little pompoms for the bottom of the roman shades.

This kitchen always makes me smile!

Fab Fabric Friday Four Days Late!

You know how sometimes stuff just happens.  So it's Tuesday and I missed Fab Fabric Friday, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen.
Here is a fabulous Scottish lace, with a Garden of Eden motif.  There are Adam and Eve in the foreground, sitting under a tree, presumably the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because it appears to be laden with fruit, and they are surrounded by all kinds of creatures.
There are elephants, camels, deer, foxes, tons of birds, including an ostrich; monkeys, unicorns, squirrels, and something that seems like a bear; even little piggies.  Horses, lions, lizards, and bunnies; a dog; and of course a snake.  There are a lot of wonderful trees, bushes, and flowers.
I'm not sure what Adam is handing Eve, but I bet it's something he wants her to sew.