When I started as a workroom, I didn't even know that anyone sewed anything by hand. The realization that some people used a needle and thread was a shock to me! My goal way back then was maximum efficiency- I didn't know that there were multiple levels of workmanship quality- I was clueless.
What a difference a decade makes! Now I look forward to hand-sewing. I spend more time with a needle and thread than at my sewing machine.
These linen mesh pinch pleat panels were mostly sewn by hand.
A French seam joined the widths- the fabric is sewn first wrong sides together, then turned and re-sewn, which encloses the raw edges. The bottom and side hems are all hand-sewn.
I put khaki chain weight in the bottom, and transparent buckram in the header. I finally was able to BUY a roll of khaki chain weight- it was on back-order forever- so I didn't have to dye any this time!
The drapery I posted about a few days ago- the ones with seams that were entirely joined by hand-!-!-!- a first for me!- are all done, and they're spectacular. The fabric, from De le Cuona, is a 75/25 wool/cotton with the softest, sweetest drape imaginable.
I'll just go ahead and post one more picture of the seam, because I love it so much:
The fullness in these panels was NOT up to me- so I did the best I could with pinch pleats at less than 1.5x fullness. A long, skinny two-finger pleat was actually pretty attractive. I tacked it at the top as well as the bottom. I used a premium woven buckram and then steamed the folds like crazy to set the shape of the pleats. The panels are pleated to pattern- every other pleat matching. Not much leeway here but they turned out great anyhow!
I did get faster at the hand-sewn seam. The second one took about 40 minutes for a 120" cut.
How do you sew interlined drapes if you don't hand sew?
ReplyDeleteWell..... I've always hand-sewn interlined panels that I've made. But workrooms do routinely blind-hem draperies whether interlined or not. I have a blind-hemmer but honestly I'm not that good at using it!
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