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BIG PICTURE

Ideas to Put to Work
Sharing new designs and helpful hints can lighten the workload.

by Cheryl Strickland

There are a few things I’d like to share with you this month. One is a personal experience I had making a simple valance for a friend of mine with a twist you might find helpful; another is a piece of workroom equipment I find very helpful and am sure you will, too; and the last is a list (we all love lists) of the top 10 workroom tools submitted by Margie Nance, our new director of education at the Custom Home Furnishings Trade School.

Let’s get started!

POORBOY SWAG WITH A TWIST
Several years ago I visited a friend in Maryland. He was so excited to have the opportunity to show me the new furniture he had chosen “all by himself” for his den. He also was worried that I, as a professional, would not think he had made a good choice. He kept saying, “You probably won’t like it, but I do. But, then again, I have weird taste.”

To his surprise, I loved it. I like contemporary design.

This friend is a veterinarian and the furniture was covered in a very chic animal print with lots of poufy solid-color pillows. What I couldn’t believe was that the fabric on the pillows was the exact same fabric I had left over from making a treatment for one of my seminars. I told him I would make a couple of valances to go over his blinds and coordinate with the furniture.

Now, this is quite a feat for me. I just don’t have the time I used to have—not even to make samples for my own seminars. But you know how it is when you just know something would be perfect, and you know you won’t be able to sleep until you see it finished. It’s like that pillow the customer just couldn’t afford, but you made anyway for free because it was going to be the perfect final touch. Not having a lot of fabric or time wasn’t a big problem, though, because the fabric was the same on both sides and the treatment was very easy to create.

I decided to make a “poorboy” swag with a bit if a twist to the design. I measured from the bottom of the window apron to the top of the frame, across the width of the window and down to the bottom of the apron on the other side. That was the amount of fabric I needed.

When measuring the length of that leftover fabric I discovered I had exactly enough with not one inch to spare. There were two windows, but the fabric I had was wide, so I split it down the middle to create two pieces.

Usually this treatment is self-lined or contrast-lined. I didn’t line this one at all because it was fine for the back of the fabric to show. I used a rolled hem along the edge of the selvage, although I didn’t need to because it wouldn’t show. I could have laid the selvage edge along the wall on the return and on top of the window frame.

After choosing a short point for the jabot-like sides of the poorboy, I angled the ends of the fabric. I then turned the raw edges of the fabric to the front of the treatment and glued matching leather-look trim along the edge covering the raw edges. I was already done!

For the finishing touch and to add a little twist to the treatment I didn’t use a typical swag holder. I used rod finials. I knew they would be perfect. They were brown and black zebra heads. The finials were made for wood poles and had two-ended screws already in them. They were screwed into sheetrock plugs into the wall just above the upper corners of the window frame.

Now, if I had laid the fabric across the zebra heads, it would have almost completely covered them. Instead, I chose to loop black twist cord around the fabric and then tie the cord around the zebra’s neck—almost like reins. My friend loved the treatment and couldn’t believe how such a simple style could pull together the entire room. He says no one ever visits without commenting about the window treatments.

BUCKRAM HOLDERS
If you make many pleated treatments at all, you know what a hassle buckram can be. It just loves to roll off the table and all over the floor whenever you try to unroll it while you are sewing. Here are two solutions I use at the trade school that are very inexpensive—or free, if you use leftover scraps.

The first holder is attached to the ceiling over your sewing machine. It is constructed of two-by-fours cut to the desired drop from the ceiling—high enough not to hit your head on, but low enough to easily reach. Attached to the inside of each two-by-four is another short piece of two-by-four in the shape of a “U.” A length of conduit is laid between the two “U’s.”

The support can be mounted from the ceiling whatever distance apart you desire. The wider apart, the longer the conduit needed and the more rolls of buckram it can hold. The same system can be mounted underneath the table or be suspended under the sewing machine table itself.

The other holder is a simple box made slightly larger than one roll of buckram. The buckram just sits inside the box, which you can place on the floor next to the sewing machine pedal and between the feet of the machine operator. It is easily removed when not needed.

When the sewer pulls on the end of the buckram, it rolls inside the box and not across the floor!

Cheryl Strickland is owner of the Custom Home Furnishings Trade School, Swannanoa, NC, and is an internationally acclaimed speaker with 20 years experience in the window coverings industry. She is the publisher and editor of SewWHAT?, an international monthly newsletter for professional drapery workrooms.