Custom Drapery Project - Sheers and Drape

No, that's not a typo in the title. Since I was supposed to make two drapes and I only finished one, it's a drape. :)

I stopped to take pictures of all the items I have finished so far. I figured the pictures would look best if I found some place to hang the drapes. Since they are not made for my house, the length is a bit too long, but you'll get the idea.

First up - the sheers.

I must say that taking the time to find the straight grain on these served me well. They hang beautifully, and it seems a shame to hide them behind a set of drapes!


The pleating really turned out beautifully - I used a non-woven header behind the pleating tape to give it some body and stability.


On all the hems, I used a zigzag stitch to allow the fabric to relax a bit and not pucker around the stitches. I think this is especially important because the fabric is very crinkly by design. I was not able to pre-shrink this fabric because steam actually removes the crinkles and that would be very bad. However, I found that a hot, dry iron worked at least to take out the "bolt" wrinkles from where it was rolled poorly on the bolt. To actually fold up the hem though, the fabric was too lightweight to try to use my hem gauge, so instead I used my rotary mat to line up the hem and hand-basted where I wanted the hem to be. Turned out pretty well I say!


Now on to the drape. This took me the better portion of a day to finish. Granted, I wasn't working on it solidly, but a lot went into this drape. First, the fabric is a stripe, and the fabric isn't wide enough for what I need, so I have to piece two lengths of fabric AND match the pattern while I am doing it. Second, to prevent fading and help the drapes, umm... drape well, they need to be lined, and the lining also has to be pieced. I really messed up the hem on one of the linings because I forgot to put on my teflon presser foot. So the lining kept sticking to the machine (it has a vinyl coating on one side) and the seam isn't as straight as I'd like it to be. I did remember for the second one, and that one turned out much better.

The fabric did unravel a lot - worse than the roman shade actually, so every time I made a cut, I had to run to the serger to cover the edge. Can I tell you that my serger is one of the best investments I've made (equipment-wise?)

I also broke a needle when doing the side hems - I guess my machine objected to the 6 layers of vinyl-backed lining and 6 layers of upholstery-weight fabric? So near the bottom hem I had to finish by hand. Actually, I left about 4" unsewn - if my machine can't stitch it, there's no way my hand sewing is going to be able to do a better job. So I just tacked it in place at the very bottom - the raw edges are all serged so I'm not worried about it coming undone or looking bad. Besides, there's a drapery weight in there!

Ok - time for pictures!


The pleating!


The hem - see you can't even tell that the bottom of the side hem is not sewn. For the bottom hem also I used a zigzag stitch to do a mock blind hem. I liked this look better than doing a straight stitch all the way across.


This is a picture of where I had to match the pattern. I took this from the inside of the hem so you could see the seam - but I'll bet you can't actually see the pattern match! When I tried to look for it, I actually had to locate the seam in the lining first, and then felt along the drapery fabric for the seam.


This seam also gets further disguised in the drape because I did not place it exactly in the middle of the panel. Your eye would naturally try to find a seam in the center - but it is not there!

Now I really have to take a break from this project because I have another custom order to finish for a local business.

Happy quilting!