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BIG PICTURE

Total Real-life Experience
Students learn firsthand about things that can go wrong.

by Margie Nance

When we tell students that The Total Experience class at the Custom Home Furnishings (CHF) School, Swannanoa, NC, is as close as you can get to a real-life experience of designing and sewing, we aren’t kidding. In the real world, things never seem to go as planned. This class was no exception.

Installation of the draperies for the Guest Cottage on the Biltmore Estate, Asheville, NC, was scheduled for a Friday last March. On the Monday before that, we were told the fabric was out of stock. Not only did we have the installation scheduled, but a reporter with the local newspaper was coming out with a cameraman to do a story on the project. And the week was just beginning.

SOME RULES ARE NOT TO BE BROKEN
The class consisted of three students: Debbie DiFrancesco, Grace Thomas and Suzanne Davis, along with guest instructor Scot Robbins of Scot Robbins and Co. (See page 22). The plan was to create an elegant drapery treatment for the dining room in the Guest Cottage on the Biltmore Estate. Robbins was asked to assist the students with a formal design that would reflect the era of the home.

Students spent the morning on location at the Guest Cottage recording information about the home. They learned how to record color information, recall fabric patterns and properly measure the windows. Part of the total experience is to go into the home and look around for clues as to what the new window treatment should look like. After the information is gathered, students sit in the room and discuss possible styles that would work based on the furnishings in the room.

The fabric was chosen ahead of time and was going to be a formal stripe in a poly-blend fabric. The fabric company we spoke to placed the yardage we needed on hold two weeks earlier and was to release and ship it the week before the class. When the fabric wasn’t at the school Monday morning, I called the company and asked where it was. At that time I was told it was no longer in stock and the 25 yards on hold belonged to another person.
It was now 4 p.m. on Monday afternoon. I had three students, a reporter and photographer coming on Friday, an installation class scheduled to install the treatments, and no fabric.

Well, this is a teaching experience and the students learned firsthand a rule that should never be broken in a workroom: Never schedule an installation before all fabrics and paperwork are in your hands.

The town of Swannanoa isn’t known for its vast array of fabric stores. In fact, the only fabric store in town is just down the road from the school. We loaded everyone into the van and headed over. My initial thought was that there is no way we would find a fabric with 25 yards in stock in the right color that would please everyone involved.

I was wrong. A coral damask became the new fabric for the dining room. The problem was solved.

EXACTLY WHAT WE WANTED
Day two began the design process. Robbins sketched a wonderful treatment incorporating tied-back drapery panels with a swag top. The design was fabulous, but now required a contrast fabric for the inside edge of the panel and everyone wanted to see the treatment loaded with trim. Luckily, the trims weren’t a problem. The school had hundreds of yards of trims that had been provided by Trims Unlimited. The issue was finding a contrast fabric that would work with the coral damask and the large floral blue wallpaper in the dining room.

After an extensive search, it was located. With two-and-a-half days to go, we could now begin fabricating the treatments.

The design was to create two pairs of drapery panels cut with a swag embedded into the panel. The treatment would be stapled to a board that peaked four inches higher in the middle. The panels would be pulled back and break two inches on the floor. The leading edge would be finished in a tassel trim, both on the outside and the inside edge of the panel. The underside leading edge and bottom of the panel was to be decked with an 8-inch strip of blue fabric to cover the lining on the inside of the panel.

With the design ready to go, it was time to lay the fabric out and cut the pattern.
The drapery panel would be mounted nine inches above the window. The top of the window to the floor was 89 inches. With a two-inch break added, that made the finished length 100 inches.

Because we were decking the underside, the bottom of the panel would be pillowcase-stitched to the contrast and didn’t require additional fabric for a double-folded hem. Each panel was 11/2 widths wide. The panels needed to be cut 100 inches long, plus mounting allowance and seam allowance on the bottom edge. An additional 40 inches at the top was added to accommodate the swaging.

The width of the panels was determined by the width of the swag plus hems and a 3 1/2-inch return. The swag pattern size was determined by measuring the finished width of the board. The board size was 80 inches, so each panel needed to cover 40 inches. The boards were raised in the center, which increased the width by an inch or so.

The panels were cut, sewn and pressed. The fringe was attached using Rowley Fringe Adhesive on both sides of the panel. A mark was made 101 inches up from the bottom edge of the panel to allow for the finished length and the board mount. The widest point of the swag was placed at this mark on the leading edge and the top and sides of the swag pattern were marked and cut. This left a 3 1/2-inch section of panel on the return side, which was necessary for the return of the panel.

Robbins shared his method of using 4-inch iron-on tape to fuse the sides of the swags. After two-and-a-half days, three students completed four swag-top panels and two swags. The look was exactly what we wanted.

On Friday morning 10 people, plus the reporter and photographer, crowded into the dining room. Within an hour or so the vision created on Monday was hanging in a home on one of the most historic pieces of property in America.

Now it was on to the living room for the next class. You wouldn’t think we would be faced with a greater challenge than the one we just did, or would you? We’ll answer that question next month, and you will learn what we discovered about our fabric selection with that class.