Little inverted pinches

Diane Satenstein loves to dress her rooms with flat panels- a more casual style for a home's less formal rooms.  We use 2" clear buckram in the header for sturdiness and fluidity, and make tiny backwards pinches.  That gives the pins something to grab onto, and makes the top easier to control.  Recently we installed this style in four rooms of a house that Diane has been working on.

Kitchen- a long window that goes nearly to the floor.

Exposed glass is maximized by using a button holdback.

In the master bedroom, interlined silk is pleated to pattern, though that's not too obvious in this photo!

I love this star-flower!  Fine quality silk is luminous with the sun behind it.

In the dressing room, unlined embroidered, incredibly sheer, silk organdy.

Exotic looking trim against that sheer defines the line of the lead edge.

In a teenager's bedroom, blackout shades provide privacy, and ultra-cool fabric provides fun.

This was entirely hand-sewn; and not as difficult as it looks like it would be.

Shadeology

People often want to make short shades to use only as valances, and they want to know what is the shortest they can get away with and still look like something. 
Here's an example.  Due to limited fabric availablilty, these shades came out only 28.5" long when flat.  Here is is pulled up to a spot that I think looks nice- about 17".

I wondered how short I could draw it before it looked silly.  Here it is at about 13"; if it did not have the topper it could possibly go up another inch.  But I don't like it that short.

When it was installed, the decorator split the difference.  The uppermost fold is a half-fold which gives the valance close to the look of a hobbled shade.  A great look for just a yard of fabric!

Fab Fabric Friday!

For a teenage girl with hippie aspirations-

The pink and black section was perfect for the flange.

This is my favorite style of sham- ruffled-corner flange.

This stripe just begged to become a bolster.

I had a hard time deciding on pink button or turquoise?

What I've been up to

It's 24 days since I last posted!....  I thought I'd better get up to speed on what's been happening around here.
We just sent out 48 widths of drapery, 8 roman shades, 4 windows' worth of swags and jabots, and one valance for a whole house project being installed today.  On Thursday I'll be delivering pillow, bedding, etc, and the furniture will be in place, so that's when I'll take my photos.
Meanwhile here's part of another order being installed today- this little cutie of a shade designed by SuElyn Chase of Cottages 2 Castles.

Quilted silk, banding of white faille, and glass beads.

 The top of the board looks as pretty as the shade.

Flaps with buckram hide the mechanism.





The banding is turned to the back and hand-hemmed, and the weight bar, concealed in a fabric tube, is tacked to the shade at the bottommost ring with the ends tucked into the banding.

Fab Fabric Friday!

Everyone else in the house got sick, and I smugly thought I was the lone holdout- until I realized I was simply the last man standing, but not for long.  I caught the cold on Monday.  I haven't gotten much work done this week!

Here is what we're working on now: a beauty of a fabric from Vaughn; here it is on the roll, but by next week it will be hanging as draperies in a bright, airy family room addition, accompanied by the lime and royal blue pillows made from the fabrics featured two weeks ago.

When we first rolled this fabric out for inspection we could see that the embroidered pattern ran off-grain by a too significant amount to join widths for flat panels.  The Vaughn rep, Deanne, graciously had it picked up and sent out to Griswold in Rhode Island to be stretched.  The variation was reduced to within about an inch, so it can be used for panels with a little fudging.  Instead of double width panels, just the centers of each width are used so the worst of the slant is removed; resulting in approximately a width and a half per panel.

These cheery fabrics are the pillows in this room:

Bahia Blind, installed!

Two layers of roman shades have transformed this very large living room space.  A dramatic treatment was called for, and Larsen's "Bahia Blind" stepped up to lend a sense of the exotic.  Denise planned two layers of fabric treatments to provide a variety of light-filtering and privacy options.

Denise's nighttime shot

My daytime shot

Differently scaled windows proved themselves a technical challenge for the workroom.
Mounted inside, horizontal striped linen shades are fully functional.  Over them, the Bahia Blind is operable on the tall windows, stationary on the smaller windows.

Our goal was to create harmony between the two windows.  I wanted the horizontal stripes to flow from one shade to the next, even though the tops of the windows were different heights from the floor.  In addition, I wanted the folds to align with each other, which required a few mathematical shenanigans, since there was no common denominator between the two windows.

There were many details I wanted to factor in.  I wanted it to be possible for the short horizontal shades to stack up under the stationary Bahia valance.   I wanted to use the full width of the Bahia for the valance, so I curved the board to bring the fabric back to the wall.  I wanted it to be possible, on the tall window, for either treatment to match the height of the short stationary valance, and also hide the transom window area which the homeowner did not care for.

Paramount in my planning was child safety standards.  For the Bahia Blind shades, we used clear rings and natural color ladder tape, both of which are totally unnoticeable, and the shade raises beautifully.  For the linen horizontal stripe, I used Rowley's mesh tube shroud in ivory; the shade folds up without hesitation.

As always when making sheer shades, the printed fabric gridded table was my friend.  I did not have to make a single mark on either fabric- I could see through to the grid and just counted up 6" to sew my rings or tacks.

I couldn't be happier with the outcome of this wonderful project!

 

The most wonderful fabric in the world!

We are the luckiest workroom in the world!........ we've been fabricating window treatments out one of the most fabulous textiles ever made: Bahia Blind by Jack Lenor Larsen.  I couldn't wait until installation day to post the pictures of this fabric.  If you are interested in learning more about this brilliant, fascinating textile designer, click on this link for a great article.  More at the end of the week.......