Black and White Greek Key

Our first shade of 2018 featured a graphic white-on-black Greek Key:

The miters started with a paper template.  A test corner was folded, pinned to shape, sewn, and tested.

The corners were trimmed and angled in closely at the tip, like a dart in clothing.

They were pressed carefully....

and a dab of glue was applied at the points to hold down any stray fibers.

A little more pressing manipulates the miter into square.

We chose to apply this trim using Dofix Bortenfix tape.  The tape was trimmed to size with a rotary cutter.....

then applied to the back of the Greek key tape.

Blue painter's tape marked the finished size and provided a guide for applying the trim.

The sides and bottom were folded and pressed along the blue tape, and then the shade fabrication continued as usual.

The first row of rings started 9" up to allow the Greek Key shape to show when the shade is raised.

Oversize panels

Until this project, I had never made panels longer than my 12' table.
When my designer friend Liz began furnishing her Florida home, she asked me to fabricate her 14' long draperies in my NY workroom and ship them to her.

We first mocked up the pleats to determine the pattern layout.  This fabric lent itself beautifully to inverted pleat.

The embroidery was irregular, so I worried a little about the geometric shapes not aligning perfectly, but at a height of 168" the small variation is totally not noticeable!

 The family room panels are pleated to pattern with a two-finger pinch pleat and 5" buckram.

Most of the panels in this home were 1.5 widths, but this corner required a 3-width panel.

I've made plenty of oversize shades, so that experience was helpful in managing the fabric volume.  It also helped to have taken Ann Johnson's excellent "Super-Size Me!" class on how to handle all kinds of oversize treatments.
First I worked the bottom 12' of the panel, shifting my way across the 3 widths, making sure to baste a precise horizontal line so I'd have an accurate reference line for shifting to the top.  (You know I love to baste!)  Once the bottoms 12' of the 3 widths were finished, I shifted the fabric to fall off the end of the table, and worked back across the 3 widths to complete the tops.

This entire project was intense!  I was working so hard, I did not take a single photograph during the fabrication, which I now regret.  Next time.  Ha. 
The master bedroom panels are a mere 126" long, by comparison a breeze.  I don't have good photos of this room yet so I'll just show the pretty pleats.

The embroidery made the pleat tops flare out too much, so I secured them at the back to control them and make them uniform.

My next oversize project is going to be a hobbled shade 158" wide and 75" long.  Always an adventure!