Sheer window and bed curtains

This project was to create the window and bed curtains for a soft, "marshmallow" guest room.  All of the treatments were to be hung from ceiling height (10') and made with white voile - nearly 50 yards!

There were two tall windows, with the sheers to be hung just under the crown molding and puddling slightly below.  There was to be a panel on each side of both windows.  The queen size bed was to be surrounded with sheers hung from the ceiling, two panels of sheers per side.  That is a total of 12 panels of sheers!  Yikes!  

The window panels were hung slightly lower that ceiling height, but needed to puddle.  The bed panels were to go from ceiling to floor.  The window panels were going to be pinch pleated with a 5" header, using tabs behind to go over the rod; the bed panels were going to have a sleeve go over the rod, with a ruffle at the top. The first step was to cut all of the panels, the window panels just a couple of inches shorter than the bed panels.  I marked and numbered each piece with a bit of masking tape.  One complication was I lacked enough fabric to cut two of the panels to their full length.  I ended up suggesting these could be the bed header panels, where the pieced part would not show.  My client agreed and we purchased some additional fabric.  I cut the pieces so that both header panels would be pieced at the same level - which was about 24" above the floor, then pieced the two panels, using a French seam.  This saved several yards of fabric!

The hems came next.  All were 6" double hems.  Since voile is so slippery slidey, I started with just pinning at the 12" mark.  Then I folded hem up where the pins were and ironed that edge.  Then I folded the 12" inside the fold all the way to the bottom fold and pinned and ironed.  Much easier said than done with this loosey goosey fabric!  Final step was stitching along the very edge of the hem fold all the way across.  By very edge, I mean ideally within one thread of the fold!  

After the hems, I cut the selvages off the sides (because they pinched slightly and would show through the hem) and turned in a double 2" hem.  This was done just like the bottom hem, but I didn't pin first, just turned 4" over and pressed.  In turn, I folded the edge inside, pinned, pressed, and stitched to give a 2" wide side hem.






With all hems and sides done, I addressed the window panel headers.  They were to be pinch pleated, and be able to open and close, with a tab on the back so that the panels hid the rod.   Since these were to have a very soft feel, I decided not to use a header tape or buckram.  I simply folded the header over 6", folding the last inch under again and sewing close to the edge.

After marking the gaps and pleats and sewing the pleat seams, I took an extra step to give the pleats support, as well as a place to sew the tabs on:   I folded the header around the each pleat seam and stitched about 3/16" from the edge.  This created a ridge behind each pleat.

To finish the pleats, I pinched each one and tacked at the top and bottom.  Then I sewed a strip of selvage I had cut off the sides to the ridge behind each pleat (shown to left and below).

Now to the bed curtains.  Originally they were to be pleated and hung from rings, but the new plan called for them to be threaded over the rods with a sleeve, with a 3" ruffle on top.  This not only softened the look, but saved purchasing nearly 100 rings!  This required a little extra length, so I purchased a little more fabric and pieced extra length to the tops of the panels so that the piecing seam was along the top fold, where it wouldn't show.  The two panels at the head of the bed were going to stay closed, but the other sides needed to open and close.  When the panels were closed, it was desired the panels retain even gathering.  I solved this by making a tack at the top of the sleeve every few inches, just like the spacing would be if they were pinch pleated. Pictures above show the opened and closed look.

The installation was somewhat time-consuming, since it involved ironing each panel before hanging.  And let's not forget dealing with the ceiling rods over the bed!   Let me tell you, threading on panels, cutting gaps for the brackets, tacking the corner edges together, and doing the other arranging needed was not easy with a 10' ceiling!  I am tall, but still had to stand on the 2nd step from the top of this ladder.  Fortunately, I made it through without any injuries!  And so did the chandelier!










   

Here are the finished window sheers.  Very full, with two panels per window.  The panels open and close with 60" clear plastic batons attached to the inside tab of each panel.  Works very well.

Why is one picture mellow yellow and the other white?  Ask my phone!  Maybe I'll bring my nice camera next time.









I'll include several pictures of the bed curtains, since the room is a little small for a comprehensive picture of the entire thing.  The first pictures are before the bed was put inside.

 A good picture of the ceiling rods.

 A pretty chandelier in the middle.

As close as I could get to floor-to-ceiling shots.

The bed is purchased and put inside.  Lovely!  At some point, the client plans to complete the look with a headboard.

                     

Bedroom Drapes with Embroidered Blue Flowers

 

Now it's time for the drapes that go over those sheers!  The fabric is a gorgeous blue flower embroidered linen-like fabric.  There are four windows, so eight panels.  Finished length 109".  Each panel will be one fabric width wide.

Here is an overview of the fabric pattern.

 The first task is to turn up the double 6" hem and hand stitch it in place.  What made this project a little more trouble is I decided the lining should back all of the visible fabric.  Otherwise, the embroidered design could show through to the front, and we can't have that!  That means the lining tucks all the way inside the side hems - all the way to the fold - and needs to be in front of the bottom hem folds.  Since I am leaving the lining hem loose at the bottom (to prevent any stretches and pulls), I had to cut a piece of lining and tuck it inside the hem before I sewed it shut.  That is what the picture to the left shows.

 The side seams were going to present a problem because (1) the lining needs to go all the way to the fold, so I can't just match up selvages, (2) the lining has to fit inside the panel -perfectly-, without any tugs or ripples.  The method I used is a lot of trouble, but results in a beautiful lining insertion.  First, I laid my fabric face down on the table and turned in 3" and pressed.  Then tucked 1" under and pressed.  I did this on both sides.  Then I laid the lining down face up and tucked the edges down the side seams all the way in and all the way down.  (The lining was cut so it was exactly the width to fit fold-to-fold.)  I needed a way to pin the fabric and lining so that I could take the panel to the machine and stitch the lining to the main fabric at the inside (1") fold.  As the picture on the left shows (with the main fabric to the left), I put straight pins in the -lining only- about every six inches down the side, where the straight pins are exactly along the fold, but not going through it.  Then I placed a straight pin in the main fabric positioned so it crosses the vertical straight pin where it goes into the lining.

Then (and this is the worst part), I lift up the lining and place it -under- the main fabric, opening up the main fabric outside fold as shown, lining the straight pins on the lining with the inside (1") fold and matching the straight pin on the main fabric to the point the vertical pin enters the lining.  That is shown in the bottom set of pins in the picture.  Then I pull out the vertical pin and use it to attach the main fabric to the lining (center set of pins), then pull out the pin from the main fabric and use it to also attach the fabric to the lining (at the top of the picture).  I made this picture a little bigger so you could see.








Then I open up the seam fold and stitch on the fold line.








Now the lining is in, I tuck under the bottom corners at an angle and hand stitch in place.  I have not talked about the lining, but it is hemmed with a 2" double hem, just a little shorter than the finished panel length.

 For the header:  I measure the true top of the panel and mark with a pin along the width of the fabric.  Then iron on the buckram above the pins, aligning the bottom edge of the buckram with the pins.  With the buckram now on, I tuck under one inch and press, then fold the buckram over as shown on the left and hand-stitch the bottom edge of the header to the lining.

Here are the eight panels ready to pleat.  Notice that the pattern of the panels on the left do not line up perfectly as the five on the right do.  They start out the same on the other end, then gradually get out of line.  This must be a result of the embroidery process, which is done on top of the woven base fabric. I take this into account when matching panels to windows.

 These pictures illustrate marking and stitching the pleats.  On the right are stitched pleat folds.

   

 As I pinched the pleats I experimented with tacking, and decide they look cleaner when I enter the pleat from behind, make stitches back and forth, then exit to the back and fasten off.

 Here are the standard drapery pins we will use to attach the drapes to rings.  This thick embroidered fabric, together with the buckram and lining, is very stiff and difficult to pin!  It helped to use needle-nose pliers to hold the pins.








The finished drapes are shown below - finished except for being "trained" to hang correctly.  After installing them, we arranged the drapes and loosely tied them together with scrap strips of cloth.  After several days, the strips were removed but I wasn't on hand to take additional pictures!   Note:  I used screw eyes  to attach the ends of the drapes to the wall to provide a finished outside edge.

Isn't this fabric beautiful in this room?

Bedroom Sheers

This project is to make sheers and drapes for 4 bedroom windows.  In this post, I describe the sheers project.  The sheers are for tall windows in a room with a 10' ceiling.  We decided on a length of 109".  The sheers will be stationary (non-moving), with one width of fabric evenly pinch-pleated across the width of the window. 

    

 The materials included 14 yards of sheer voile fabric, about 13 yards of sheer header tape, and thread.





After measuring and measuring again, I tore the fabric for each panel about a half-inch above the desired cut and then cut a clean edge with my rotary cutter.  Before doing anything else, I also cut off the selvages to prevent that slight bit of puckering you get with sheer voile.

 The hem was to be a double 6" hem.  Voile is famously slippery and hard to work with.  To help make the hem accurate, I placed some masking tape at the 6" mark and used it as a guide to turn up the hem twice, pin and iron in place.

To secure the hem, I stitched along the top edge  very close to the fold.  It needed to be pressed one more time, stretching and holding the stitching area each time until it was cool.  I think of voile kind of like hair - after heating (with the iron) you need to hold it in place until it cools so it will retain its shape.

Below - pinning the hem, the stitched hem being pressed.

 

To attach the header, I sewed the edge of the header to the wrong side of the voile, one half inch below the top of the panel, as shown below.  Then folded the header over twice and pinned it to the panel, pressed, stitched, and pressed again.

 

 The side hems were a double 1.5" fold, pinned, stitched, and pressed.

  
 
The pleats were done in the usual way, marked, folded and stitched, then pinched and tacked at the bottom.  I felt I needed an extra tack at the top (see above) to keep the pleats from popping out.

 Here are the finished, installed sheers, hanging on sheer rods with standard drapery pins.  They are hanging with drapes that had just been installed but not yet trained!  My next blog post describes the drapes.

Pinch-pleated Valence for Breakfast Nook

Wow, I have really gotten behind on my posts!  All I can say is, you  have to make hay while the sun shines, and the sun has been shining, as you will see as I catch up my blog!

Here is a project for a pinch-pleat valence in a breakfast nook with 3 angled windows.  We decided to hang the valence fairly high and make the finished length 21".

 

The cut length of the valence is 21" + 3"*2 for hem + 4"+1" for header = 32".  The pattern is Bosporus.  After determining where I wanted the pattern to fall on the finished valence, I pulled a thread to mark the top and bottom cuts.

    

The finished with of the valence is 152", so before pleating and including the seams for the multiple widths, I needed 292" of width.  This took about 6 widths of fabric!  The repeat on this fabric is 24", so as I cut each of the widths starting in the exact same place in the pattern there was about 16" of waste between each one.  Nothing to be done about that.

Next step is to sew all the main fabric widths together and repeat the cutting and sewing widths together with the lining (below).

I chose to sew the side hems next, bringing the main fabric in 2" on the edges.  I sewed each side hem by matching the raw edges of the lining and main fabric, right sides together, and sewing a 0.5" seam allowance. Once the side seams were completed, I stretched out the fabric and lining to press the sides in so that the lining was completely flat against the fabric from end to end.  Now I turned up a double 3" hem, pinned, and hand-stitched all the way across.  Did this take time with about 12' of hem?  Yes!  Looking back, I think I could have saved some work by machine stitching the top of the hem to the lining (without showing on the front), then hand-stitching the sides, which were so short.

After the hem, I placed the bottom of the iron-on buckram exactly 21" above the bottom of the hem and ironed it in place.  Then turned down the 1" tuck allowance, then turned all that over again and pressed to result in a 21" total length.  I stitched along the bottom of the header edge to give it a neat appearance from the back.

I also at this time hand-stitched the folded edges and bottom corners so everything would lie flat.




Now for the pleats!  There will be 30.  The first step is to mark the gaps and pleat widths all along the header and check to be sure there is the correct amount of gap on each end (4").  I made a marking pattern on a piece of paper and used it to place pins at each pleat and gap.  For each pleat, I folded the valence wrong sides together, matching the beginning and ending pleat pins, and sewed down 4" through the fabric, lining, and buckram.  The picture at the right shows the panel with pleat spaces sewed and pressed.

  

To make the pinch pleats, I went through the stack and pinched each pleat into 3 folds, securing the lower edge.  On the right is the finished valence, with the fabric design falling just as I planned.

 

The valence was installed using simple pleat hooks hung over three sheer rods butted up against each other to make a continuous valence.  They look nice, I think!