A surprise, improv, return flaps, and color-block

Workrooms often don't get to see their work in a truly finished room.
Often when we go to measure, the room is still under construction, like this one.

The day we came to install the treatments, there was a carpet in place but no furniture.

There was also a big surprise.

These built-ins were not there when I measured!!! 
The shade needed barely 1/4" off one side of the board.  The fabric fit just fine.
Well, we are nothing if not problem-solvers, and Mario's improv experience serves him well in all phases of his life.  He wielded the saw, and I helped by applying my weight to the miter box.  A little hot glue and a couple of screws later, that shade was hangable.

Fusible buckram has more magical uses than I can count, and one of my faves is to stiffen return flaps for shades.  Here I made 5 pair.  Sewing them makes them too bulky so I use double-sided adhesive. 

A quick fold and steam-

And they're ready to be attached.

Here they are from the front, on a different shade.

A peek underneath-

And from behind:

Curious to see the color-block shade?

 

Straight of grain

Keeping the grain straight is essential for window treatments to hang beautifully.
I've shown this shade before, while discussing dyeing the ladder tape.  It's a faux linen grainy polyester with a bit of metallic threads.

 

The following pictures might easily be the most boring photos ever shown on a blog, sorry!  But at least I did remember to take them, and they do illustrate the story......

 It was easy to cut and press the fabric on the grain because of the chunky weave.  But the shade is longer than my table, so before shifting the fabric to mark and sew the last row of rings, I ran a red thread along the grain line to make it easy to shift the fabric and re-align the grain.  It's especially helpful that you can see through sheer or semi-sheer fabrics to the dark grid lines underneath!

The line remained when it came time to staple the shade to the board, so I could measure up from the line to double-check that the grain stayed true.  Here I'm using the covered board to check it against the gridded table.  I think I said, boring pictures?

I didn't remove the red thread until the shade was finished and strung and hanging.  Just to be sure!