Reconstructive Surgery

Katherine Stern and I had to take some liberties with this Designers Guild print in order to fit it onto the 45" wide shades.

It started life as a 54" wide fabric.  To use it as it was printed would have meant cutting off the design in an awkward spot on each side, so we decided to slice out the center border, and reduce some of the blank space on the sides.

Once we had that center border it seemed obvious to use it as a bottom band.  I split it to make a mirror image.

Katherine chose the topmost motif and I worked from the top down.  We mocked it up on the table first.

I stitched the bottom band to the face and pressed it down.....

Then folded under the bit of white at the bottom, topstitched it down......

Then folded it up on the yellow line so the excess white was on the back.

Katherine requested a softer, slightly puffier look than usual, so we chose Domette interlining for fat, soft folds.

The weight bar was tucked in under the side hems and secured.

There was little fabric for side hems, so the color bar shows partly, and I happen to think that is extra cool.

The shades look fantastic raised to any height.

A baker's dozen: autumn projects

Today I'm going to show off a bunch of small projects that go as far back as September.
First, a few shades.
This fabric was beautiful and easy to work with, and pleating it to pattern was a joy.  Here is one of a group of shades for a teen's bedroom.

This fabulous appliqued linen was perfect for a small powder room window.

 

The light in this NYC apartment was softened and diffused with this embroidered linen.  The fabric was difficult to work with because the motifs were not laid out on the yardage in the traditional manner.  It took careful planning and confident cutting to get this shade made! 

Old-school decorating with a classic Thibaut print!  Sweet.  I made the shade out of re-purposed drapery panels.

Pillows.

We didn't do a whole lot of pillows this autumn, but the ones that did come through were notable.

A gorgeous geometric print was perfect for a simple one-piece flanged pillow:

Hot velvets for a store display:

Very modern boxed rectangles:

An embroidered tablecloth re-purposed as pillows:

Accomplishments:

I learned the ladder stitch from the revered Penny Bruce of the UK when she held a full-day workshop on her workroom's high-end fabrication methods.  Where has this stitch been all my life???

 I finally mastered the art of the roman shade return flap:

I also delved head-first into a boxed swag project, and managed to pull it off thanks to Ann Johnson's incredible "Anatomy of a Swag" book. 

This is not a window treatment, but I did complete my first Alabama Chanin project: a tank top in 3 colors; AND I even wore it!

Lastly, this crazy project.  This bed is a full size.  The company offers a complete all-in-one headboard-slipcover-bedskirt for this exact bed in a twin size, but not full size.  The homeowner bought the twin slipcover, the designer ordered solid blue cotton duck, and crazy me cut the slipcover in half and inserted a band of blue to make it fit the larger bed.  To my relief and astonishment, it fit perfectly!!!!!  The solid blue is meant to pick up on the lampshades.  You can't see in this photo, but there's contrast topstitching as well.  And yes it IS all one piece!  A bit much to fit under the sewing machine arm, but I did it!  And yes I did a lot of reference marking and notching before slicing that thing up the middle.