135" of drama. And arched shades.

On installation day, it often happens that we are so wrapped up in the details of the work, we forget to really look and see how beautiful the treatments are.  That's what happened to me with this job for Denise Wenacur: drapery panels 135" long flanking sheer arched relaxed shades.  When I got home and saw the photos on the computer, I was astonished at how dramatic this room had become!

The panels are two-finger Euro pleats with 6" buckram.

The shades are a very sheer voile, mounted on very discreet frames that blend in with the woodwork.

Making those frames was the biggest challenge of the project.  There was a lot of trial and error.  I chose to use FirmAFlex for the arched part.  It's white and I hoped it would blend in with the wood, but in the end I covered it all with fabric after all. 
The first template was made from paper, and then a second template from foam board.  I wanted something that was rigid, to fit into the space without flexing, for testing; but also a material that I could modify if corrections were needed.

John rigged up a way to stabilize the sheets of FirmAFlex so it could be cut with a jigsaw. 

The arch was attached to the dustboard, then a narrow strip to the top.  This is the back, facing outside.

The narrow edge became the front.  All the surfaces were eventually covered with fabric, hiding the little angle iron, the raw edges, and the joins.  In the window, the frame just disappears and looks like the woodwork.

When the shades were fabricated, the ladder tape stopped just above the board line, and I ran a line of basting thread along the board line as a reference for stapling later.

I'm getting ahead of the story now, but here, the shade already stapled on and hung on a Workroom Valet, you can see how the basting line guided the fabric placement.

But back to the fabrication story.  When it was time to put the shade on the frame, I eventually decided to run double-sided tape along the arch, and carefully fold the fabric (cut following the arch) up over the edge, easing in the fullness, and sticking it to the tape.

Next came the part where I forgot to take pictures of applying a narrow piping to the edge, and covering all remaining surfaces with fabric.  Then Rollease traversing clutches were mounted and rigged, the shade strung, and leveled- then packed for installation.

On installation day, our talented installer Mario dressed the draperies to perfection. 

In order to get the pleats and spaces right, I made mockups of the stripe and marked everything before trimming down the widths for joining.

In the adjacent dining room, two-finger Euro pleat panels are drawn to each side.  Sheer relaxed shades under the panels are just like the living room shades, minus the arch.

Double bands and mitered corners and microcord

I enjoyed figuring out how to make these double-banded draperies for designer SuElyn Chase of Cottages to Castle.  In a tall window in a stairway landing, they are eye-catching for sure.

The lead edges and hems have double bands with mitered corners, of two different poly fabrics, and microcord, with three-finger Euro pleats, and pieced banded tiebacks.

My first concern was keeping these fabrics stable, especially the blue ribbed fabric.  After seaming the strips, which I cut oversize, I ironed them to a fusible stabilizer.

Then I trimmed them down with a rotary cutter.

Before I sewed the banding strips to the face fabric, I basted them together by hand.

That step prevented the band layer from walking as it was applied.

The rotary cutter was used again to trim that seam.

I was happy with the mitered corners!

Before applying the microcord, I machine stay-stitched the banding lead edge.

And before cutting the welt cord strips, I reinforced the blue fabric with stabilizer.

That provided at least some control!

The face and lining (solid green) were sewn together at the lead edge and hem.

Again, trimming was neat and easy with the rotary cutter.

The top was finished with a low-bulk method, using fusible buckram to help maintain some control.  The return edge was rolled and blind-hemmed. 

The three-finger Euro pleats were tacked by hand.

I love the tiebacks with the skinny green center strip!

A time to break a rule

Pleated gauze has been available for a number of years now, but this was the first time I'd seen it with the pleats running the length of the bolt instead of across the width.

For relaxed romans 53" long, we were just able to railroad the fabric, joining on a half-width at the bottom so the seam would be hidden behind the first permanent fold.

This project is a good example of when it's appropriate to use an alternate fabrication method to best suit the fabric and the product.  The designer- Berniker Decorators in Katonah- requested that we wrap the return halfway around the board, to help fill in the hourglass shaped gap that often is unavoidable with relaxed shades.

Our normal double 2" side hem which we have used if these were flat Roman shades would be too bulky for this situation, so we decided to pillowcase the fabric and lining.  I can't even remember the last time I pillowcased a shade.

The wrap-around worked perfectly: the fabric flares out a bit and prevents gapping.

It was fun to see all five shades hanging in the workroom.

But it was even more fun when Scott sent me this picture, all five shades installed!

Blind hemming

When I started out as a full-time workroom, I didn't know that there were workrooms where people actually used needle and thread to sew.  I thought everything in a proper workroom was done by machine.  Thank goodness I soon learned differently!  Sixteen years later, I've come to love sewing by hand, both for the superior results and the satisfying sense of process.
That being said, there are times when hand-sewing, while delightful, is just unnecessary because the result will be in no way superior to the machine sewn version.
So a couple of years ago I bought a blind-hemmer.  When I started out, I subbed out all of my drapery orders, so I had little need for a blind-hemmer.  Now, I do make some drapery, but what I make here is always and only by hand, so I still don't need the blind hemmer for panels.  The same goes for my Roman shades: they are made on the table, by hand, and don't leave the table until they are on the boards. 
However, I find plenty of other time-saving uses for it.  It is invaluable for bedskirts, a few valance applications, and, sometimes, relaxed, London, or balloon shades.
It made short work of this interlined London shade.

I assembled the shade on the table.  The linings were laid in, hems folded, and rings and ladder tape sewn, all on the table, the bottom left unfinished.

The top and bottom were basted across by hand and trimmed.

A quick trip to the blind-hemmer finished off the side hems.

Back at the Juki, the brush fringe was sewn on, and then a facing of the moire, and, yes, I forgot to take a picture of sewing on the facing!

You'll just have to imagine the part where I sewed on the facing, which was made from a strip of fabric, folded in half, sewn over the fringe seam allowance, and pressed up to meet the bottommost rings.  Then that, too, went to the blindhemmer.  The ends were slipstitched together for a clean bottom finish.

And that blind-hemmer saved me probably the amount of time that it took to write up this post :)

Rippling to Pattern

This is the first ripplefold curtain that I've made that had to be pleated to pattern.  We worked with the designer, Denise Wenacur, to locate a very strong double rod from Lancaster Associates for this space 9' high and 11' wide for a blackout ripplefold overdrape and sheer pinch pleat underdrape. 

We prepared the ripplefold panel- 5 widths- finishing the bottom and left side, serging the top to prepare to apply the ripplefold tape, and leaving the right side unhemmed.  The panel was marked and labeled with the fold turning front and back.  After I finished labeling the folds as you see below, I realized that the seam goes to the side of a fold, not to the back, so I re-labeled it all.  Once I was satisfied that I had it all planned correctly, I hemmed the lead edge.

The snaps on Ripplefold tape come with only one spacing, so if there is a pattern to the fabric, the tape needs to be re-arranged so the snaps fall according to the pattern.  The horizontal repeat was not too wide so it was ok to cut the tape into pieces and leave that small space in between.  Every other fold matches.

The effect with the Greek key pattern was impressive!