Keeping a big job organized

March was a busy month in our workroom.  Several big projects were due to be installed in a small time frame. It was critical that I work to maximum efficiency in order to meet my production goals.

The job featured in the last post consisted of eight shades of different sizes, and six required joining widths. 

Because so many other things were happening at the same time and space was limited, I couldn't cut and join all these widths at the outset because there was no room to store them neatly.
I inspected the fabric and tentatively marked the 81" cuts, allowing several inches above the board line.

One of my favorite free workroom tools is the big 4-5" diameter tubes that are used for shipping velvets and upholstery fabrics.  I made my 14 cut lengths, leaving them stacked on the table, and rolled 6 of them onto a large tube, individually, so they could be peeled off one at a time for fabrication.  Then I split one in half, for the 98" wide shade, and rolled that onto another large tube, along with the last two narrower cuts.  Every cut was labeled with blue tape.  The big tubes make rolling easy, so I save every one I get.

For the 5 shades that were about 65" wide, I trimmed the sides to the necessary width, and hung them over the fabric rack at the end of the table.  With blue tape I marked one of the center cut-offs at the board line, and kept it hanging in the back as a reference as I worked through the fabrication of the shades.

When I can, I use this method for joining widths- I don't know what it's called!- I fold 1/4" from the selvedge, align it with the other fabric cut, nudge it over, and top-stitch down the fold.  It takes practice, but when you get the hang of it, it's a neat, efficient width-joining technique.  I learned this about 30 years ago from a professional drapery sewer named Connie who continued working well into her 80s, and I've been practicing it ever since.  By the way, Connie did NOT need to press that 1/4" and she did NOT need pins!

The table grid and long straightedge made easy work of trimming the tops evenly.

Each shade was made by my standard fabrication method, with buckram and weight bar tube in the bottom.

I never, ever join widths of lining for shades anymore; I stock double-wide regular and napped sateen in white and pale ivory.  These shades were about 5" longer than my 60" wide table.  When it was time to shift the shade to finish the top, I first marked a line with disappearing pen, pinned, shifted, and used a quilter's rule to mark the finished length.  The shade was trimmed and staple-basted.

Once it was neatly folded and set aside, it was time to roll out the next cut length and start a new shade.
When they were all made, it was easy to put them through an assembly-line to finish, because we had already cut and covered the lumber, cut the weight bars and ribs, and assembled the Rollease clutches- for 60 shades.  All these components are marked and grouped by job.  The photos below are from a different large batch of shades, but it's representative of what we do before every high-volume fabrication effort. 

Shades and panels

I've decided to write about these treatments today, because designer Denise Wenacur has featured them in her blog post today for Greenhouse Fabrics.   Please click on the link and check it out!
We made 8 shades in all for this dining area, kitchen, hallway, and foyer.  In the dining area, the shades are flanked by narrow sheer box-pleated panels, mounted on the molding, which soften the room and draw the eye up.
The door is treated with a stationary roman shade valance.

This wide bank of windows needed three shades, each about 65" wide. 

Around the corner in the hallway is a 98" window tucked behind a staircase.  This shade is full-length, but tied off to be stationary.

Here's the other end of that 98" hallway shade, adjacent to the foyer shade.

Over the sink another stationary shade is tucked under the soffet.

I have a new super-cool method for stationary shades for doors, like this one. I'll be doing a post about this method soon.

Meanwhile, a sneak preview: it's on the tiniest headrail imaginable, that is completely unseen.  This is the AL1 from Dofix, and I've been finding interesting ways to use it.

 

In fact, the AL1 was used to hang the narrow sheer panels.

 I made a set of pleat mockups for Denise so she could choose the number of pleats and panel widths.

To keep the panel widths consistent, we extended the headrail at the ends, stabilizing it on the outside with a tiny L-bracket to which we added velcro for the panel return.

One side required a cutout to fit around the ceiling.

This little headrail made installation go so smoothly!  The panel tops are finished with hand-sewn facings and fusible velcro.

More on this project next time!

MAKERS: pre- Custom Workroom Conference in Nashville

I got home at 9:30 last night from the Custom Workroom Conference in Nashville...... a 5-day trip packed with adventure, inspiration, education, and friendship.  I taught two classes, "Taking the Stress out of Relaxed Roman Shades" and "Streamlining Top Treatments."  As a MAKER I am ALL ABOUT simultaneously maximizing quality and efficiency.  I'm also all about the fusion of fun, work, and learning, and by that standard, these 5 days were a spectacular success.  The conference was produced by Susan Woodcock and Rodger Walker, who made a whole lot of hard work look effortless.

This is a LONG POST about the pre-conference trip, which unintentionally was essentially all about MAKING.  Our trip began when Jen White left her house at 3:15am Saturday to pick me up.  This first blog post ends Sunday evening- before the conference even began!  Our pre-conference adventures were sewn together with a common thread: it was all about MAKERS.  Makers of textiles, makers of music; makers both ancient and modern; makers of luxuries, makers of necessities; makers of food, makers of drink; and makers of history.

Jen and I left New York at 6:40am on Saturday, and barely made our flight thanks to road closures on the way to LaGuardia Airport.  Our luggage didn't make our plane, but we did, and enjoyed a great flight with a friendly seat-mate with whom we laughed it up in the back of the plane all the way to Nashville.

Our destination was Florence, Alabama, and the goal was to visit the factory and headquarters of Alabama Chanin.  Alabama Chanin embodies the essence of modern MAKERS.  Natalie Chanin is one of my heroes.

The showroom is a fantasia of exquisite textile work.

When we were disappointed to learn that there were no factory tours on Saturdays, and since we had come "all the way from New York" to see the Alabama Chanin facility, the staff unbelievably gave us a private tour, and that tour kind of blew my mind.  Alabama Chanin is essentially a cottage industry.  Local sewers produce the custom garments by hand in their own workrooms, fabricating to the company's unique aesthetic and standards.  The work is rustic and impeccable at the same time- you know, exactly the kind of juxtaposition of opposites that make my heart skip.  Natalie's market expanded when she branched out from custom work and began the School of MAKING- offering products and kits for people to MAKE her garments for themselves.  DIY MAKERS.  I came away with my head spinning with fresh possibilities for MAKING, new ideas for business models for MAKING, and renewed inspiration for teaching MAKING.

We made our way to the town of Florence, a haven for MAKERS, brimming with local artists and home and apparel designers.  At the Billy Reid store I was lucky enough to find a beautiful shirt for John at half-price.  The friendly staff was familiar with Alabama Chanin since the two companies have been collaborators on projects, so they were delighted with our story about our private tour of The Factory.

After lunch at Rosita's, we walked toward the river to visit the Indian Mound and Museum.

This ancient Mound is a well-preserved artifact of pre-Columbian Woodlands Indians, kin to other Mounds throughout the central and southern US states.  MAKERS.  I was grateful and humbled for the chance to privately view these artifacts, a timely reminder of the Chain of Knowledge of Making running through pre-history and pre-Columbian America right straight through to Alabama Chanin, Billy Reid, and me and Jen and our own tribe- all of us MAKING our way to a convention of MAKERS.

The museum had just closed when we arrived, but in keeping with what we were learning was typical super friendliness in Florence, the gentleman who was beginning to lock up invited us in, turned the display lights back on, and gave us an overview of the Mound history, and let us wander through the exhibits without hurrying us.  

Back up in town, we found ourselves in the midst of the People's Climate March, sponsored by Northwest Alabama Indivisible.  What a surprise!  We chatted with other like-minded people who were there to voice their love and concern for our planet: MAKERS of history, TAKERS of responsibility.

Performing was our new favorite band- Mitch Mann and the Mojo Mixers- a group of rootsy pros who are also links in a long chain of MAKERS, like us- in this case, MAKERS of Music.  

Florence, Muscle Shoals, and other adjacent towns are at the heart of a long history in American music recording.  Old-timey blues music-MAKERS were recorded here, and later, my own music- the Rolling Stones; the Allman Brothers; Bob Dylan; many, many others.  The chain remains unbroken today.

If we had set out to find a fine local band, we couldn't have done any better.  We were lucky we found our way there,  and were disappointed that we had to get back to Nashville for our missing luggage and couldn't hang out for more music later.

They even played every sewer's favorite Donovan song..... "you've got to pick up every stitch....."   ....... can't improve on that!

 So we headed back north, fetched our luggage, and since at that late hour there were few rooms available, found ourselves in a room with these window treatments........ NO WORDS. 

Morning found us up in town, checking out vintage Nudie Cohn stage costumes over local beer and fried pickles, at Nudie Cohn's Honky Tonk.  OF COURSE there was live music at noon.  Do you know about Nudie Cohn's costumes?  You need to.  You really need to.   Click and learn.  I've put 3 links there for you to check out.  Do it.

Talk about MAKERS- Nudie Cohn was the creme de la creme of stage costume- and I aspire to produce my things with the same level of expertise and creativity. 

Oh, right, and we sampled products from local beverage MAKERS- any beverage with "hop" in it- has my name on it.  Look at those bottles, Hap and Hop LOL

MAKERS of music kept us entertained at Nudie's- as they do in every window-front in town, apparently all day and all night, every day and every night.  I need to get back to Nashville for more.  That's one of Nudie's own Cadillacs hung over the stage.

Nashville is full of purveyors of HAND-MADE boots and hats.  Too bad I can't wear cowboy boots- not with my instep- and hats give me a headache.  My great-uncle W. Z. Leatherwood used to wear a white Stetson and bolo and boots every day of his life. 

The MAKER of Bluegrass- Bill Monroe- arrived in Nashville in 1945 with his brand-new music genre.  One of John's most memorable gigs as an audio engineer was with Bill Monroe when he performed in our area back in..... 1985 maybe?  88?  It was always an honor and a thrill to work with professional musicians of that caliber, and especially those of the old-timey generation of MAKERS that's long gone now. 

Since this was a work trip I didn't have time to get to the Grand Ole Opry, BUT, as a one-time roadie myself for John, I did make a point to walk Ryman Alley between the Ryman Auditorium and Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, feeling a faint frisson that just might have been the faint echo of the footsteps of Hank Williams and Johnny Cash........

At the Country Music Hall of Fame, we professional sewers wandered the halls marveling at the workmanship of more stage costumes by MAKERS both old and current.  My favorite display was Johnny Cash's boots and black suit. 

From there we made a mad dash through blinding rain to the car, coffee in hand, drenched, and reluctantly left Nashville behind, heading for the conference center where we happily came smack-dab up against OUR OWN TRIBE- professional soft furnishings fabricators, our work soul-mates, our fellow textile obsessives, our fellow MAKERS, all checking in together.  I did have to make a panic run at 7:50pm to Best Buy which closed at 8pm, for one last projector cable, what John says is a "just-in-case, not-gonna-need-it but what-if-somebody-does-need-it" cable...... (which, of course, nobody needed!).... and then it was time for a final run through my first Keynote presentation, and, finally, some sleep.  My first class, coming at 8am Monday!  More tomorrow........

 

Turban swags

Before I had the recent shade marathon, I had a swag sort of half-marathon.  The last proper blog post was the final installment of three about an arched swag treatment.  At the same time, I was drafting a pattern for Turban swags and also some Austrian swags.  So I had a big swag immersion week or two!
Of course the first thing I did for the Turban swags was drape chain weight, following the instructions in Ann Johnson's book.  The vertical chain drop marks the specific short point at the crossover.  Turban swags are hybrids: one side of each swag is a traditional board-mounted swag, and the other side is a boxed swag.  Ann shows how to combine two styles of swag to create this and other hybrid swags.

 Draping the chain weight took a lot of experimenting.  The board and legs were set up on the edge of the table so the chains could easily be adjusted to get the right silhouette.

The Turban swags presented a challenge because the fabric was a woven vertical stripe and the designer wanted the stripes to run horizontally.  Swag patterns are not rectangles- they are weird curved trapezoids- so the stripes would've been cut at an curve at the bottom and I didn't like how that looked.  Therefore I improvised.  The swag was possible by making a more informal look.  On the sides the stripes are pleated, but because the swag wasn't cut as it should've been, it wouldn't hold its folds.  I had to allow the fabric to do what it wanted, yet guide it into pleasing gathers.   The casual gathered look worked well with this heavy woven fabric.

These swags were being mounted on a window which ran straight into a door opening on the left, so the return couldn't be the full length of the swag on the left side.  I made a short return, then a fascia board to support it and provide a surface to wrap the bottom pleats around for stapling.

 A lot of stapling and unstapling and re-stapling went into the process of pleating the swag to achieve a pleasing look.  This is one of many incarnations of the return:

 Finally the swags were pleated attractively, and the returns were finished.  We added velcro and sent along a flap of fabric that the installer could position to conceal any gap, if that proved necessary.

I was on pins and needles until the phone rang- the designer and homeowner LOVED the treatment!

Shade Apocalypse!

I'm back, people!  This past 4 weeks I've been working intensely on projects that all came in at once and were all due practically at once, including one whole house project, and one half-house.
About 80% of the work we did in-house this past month was shades- close to 60- some of them gigantic- so you can bet I've got a lot to say about shades!  Yeah, in this business, there's no such thing as "Now I've seen it all!"   Nope, there is ALWAYS more to see, more to learn, more problems to solve, and more challenges to confront.
So as much as I've talked about shades over the years, I've got even more to say, after these past 4 weeks.
No, I'm not going to say it all RIGHT now!  It'll take me some time to distill my notes and and curate the photos for the blog.
Here's just one, to give you an idea:

My incomparable husband John was priceless during this effort, and I couldn't have done all this work without his intelligence and knowledge and ability to assess, diagnose, and improvise- people, if you ever need a problem-solver extraordinaire, ask an audio engineer!
Camille flew in and out of the studio off and on, and tirelessly sewed probably a thousand rings herself.  We bartered time so I could help her make a super-cool shade for her friend.
Workroom Facebook friends Elki and Greg came to my aid late one evening when we were stuck trying to figure out something about spring roller systems.
Mike at Designer's Resource waterproofed some packages when I had to pick up after-hours and in the pouring rain a few things I had forgotten to order.
Marty picked up and delivered over-size tubes.
Josh spent 3 hours volunteering to run a few miles of lift cord through ring locks.
Tim my installer talked as he worked installing all these different shade systems, and I took notes- in the process I learned a lot more about the issues the installers face, and how in the workroom we can anticipate these issues and allow for them.
AND I managed to get to the NJ WCAA event "Windows to Success" with two fantastic presentations by Terri Booser!

In the past 5 weeks we have used 4 different lift systems- traversing clutch, tube clutch, spring roller roman, and RBS headrail. I'll tell you about them all- why we used each particular system for different circumstances; and I'll tell you what we learned about each system in the process.

Blackout.  Oh, boy, blackout.  I've gotten my new method- my 100% completely foolproof no-pinholes-of-light-absolutely-guaranteed  method- down to a sleek, well-oiled-machine sort of process- with ribs, too!  These are serious shades- serious Home Furnishings- and I'm thrilled with them.

I have discovered yet another method for making hobbled shades- I think I now know of about a dozen ways to make hobbled shades- and it keeps getting both better AND easier AND faster. 

Pattern was an important component of some of the hobbled shades, so I did a lot of pattern mocking-up, and I found a neat trick to allow us to make larger folds to accommodate a pattern repeat and still remain in compliance with safety standards!

Stationary shades- I used 4 different methods for those...........
Toppers for reverse mounted shades........
New ways to use Dofix products.........
Oh, and how I used fusible Dofix blackout lining to remedy on-site an absurd mistake I made...............

Did I mention yet the arched shade?  And how we made the frame by bending and layering wood ripped to 1/4" with our new bandsaw?

Yeah, I have a LOT to say about shades!
Stay tuned.......