In order to get the silhouette we wanted, I started with several mockups and experimented with them.
Once we had decided on a center pleat and a skirt, I made a finished sample shade out of real fabric because- well, because I like to do that. It's a good way to accumulate workroom samples, and the only way to really test the idea short of using the customer's actual fabric. This mockup showed that we wanted the skirt to be an inch shorter- good to know!
What made this fabric so spectacular was the two-color weave: blue in one direction, gold in the other, that crumpled up into metallic bluish brassy crinkled netting that varied as the light changed.
The crinkle made the netting nearly impossible to press into a straight line. I made a semi-rigid pressing guide by ironing together two layers of fusible buckram.
That did the trick, sort of..... it was a long process, ironing the side and bottom hems. It was critical to keep it from stretching as I worked the iron up the side.
Lastly, I used gold colored traverse cord as microcord inside a single layer of the netting for the tops of the boards. You can't really see that it's there, but you would see if it wasn't there. If you know what I mean.
No comments:
Post a Comment