Joining fabric

[Jules]

I have bought fabric to make a pair of double pleat, interlined shams or dress curtains, to sit in front of a roman blind which will be used to shield the window. I calculated my fabric requirement based on the usual things, such as pattern repeat, curtain length, heading style etc.

Now I've come to join the widths I'm horrified to see that the fabric is woven in such a way as to make correct pattern matching impossible, unless you give up on the first quarter!

This will mean I'm short of fabric as I will no longer have the fullness I need and the curtains will look mean....If I do join close to the edge there is a piece of the pattern missing. There was no mention of the matching needing to go into the fabric so far on the sample I have. Is this common? What do I do?

Advice please.

[Schuhby]

Re: Joining fabric

Jules you can slip stitch the match into place first and then machine - Otherwise, if they are never going to close join the fabric with pattern matching and hide the seam wihin a fold.

Philip

[Guest]

Re: Joining fabric

Jules

What is the dead drop of your curtain ??

How wide is the window between the reveals ???

How much stack back have you allowed each side ??

How many widths of fabric did you allow for each curtain ???

[Jules]

Re: Joining fabric

Philip, I wish I had a digi camera. If the fabric pieces are laid side by side, selvedge to selvedge, there is still a piece of the pattern missing, so joining, even with slip stitching first won't solve this one. I think I will follow your second suggestion though, join as best I can under the circumstances and hide the join within a fold.

unless I can do it better, given what I've got:

The dead drop is 81" ( 2057mm)

The pole is 70" (1778mm)

The pattern repeat is 420mm

The aperture of the window is 1540mm

I have allowed 6 repeats per drop and 1.5 width per dress curtain. They won't be closed, just look good - I hope. The blind will be used instead of the curtains.

[Guest]

Re: Joining fabric

Ok Jules you have only about 11 cm stack back on a curtain which is only 2 metres long.

I would only allow 1.5 widths for a dress curtain on a window of much much larger proportion than this.

I would loose the quarter and make the correct fabric join and not a bad one which you will be ashamed of later. The finished curtain should probably hold 6 pleats in total but if you really have to pleat on the pattern and you have to loose a pleat because of the quarter width loss then 5 will be plenty as long as they are bold and well formed. and because it is a dress curtain you could make your spaces smaller and bring more fabric into your pleats which will enhance the look of the head. Using 15cm buckram in the head would make the pleating more elegant and fuller and you have plenty of fullnes in the remainder of this curtain to suit a window of this size. You could also consider a bulkier interlining to give the curtain more body.................................C

[Jules]

Re: Joining fabric

My reason for thinking 1.5 widths was that I didn't want them to look mean. I wanted it to look stunning when you walk into what is, their guest area.

Do you really think I'll get away with just 5 pleats if I loose the 1/4? Stupid question. You wouldn't have said so if you didn't think I could. Drrr.

I will have to look at the weight of interlining available to me. I have bought the one I usually use. There is, however, only one at my regular store. The only other I have access to at this notice is really quite heavy and looks like cord.... Perhaps some of you will have seen it?

If they were for me, I'd be tempted to join and be damned but, it's so different when they are for others!!!

[Guest]

Re: Joining fabric

Jules If you don't need to make them till next week then you can take some home with you from here if you like what you use. I keep a beautiful 260grm domett and a slightly thicker but lighter weight synthetic but you will see both and use the domett here.

If you look at the curtains in the Elizebethan mansion, the ones with the goblet pleats. those dress curtains are 3.9 metres long x 1.5 widths with 6 goblets. 6 spaces of 6cm each and 6 goblets at 29cm each. Do they look full enough ??? because yours will look very little different and your pleats will not need to be anywhere near that large because the window you are making for would not hold that additional pleating proportion.....................................C

[Guest]

Re: Joining fabric

The other thing is Jules if you bring the fabric with you we can look at the pleating arrangement here. If you haven't cut it yet dont. Bring the roll. If you have I hope you have only cut one drop for matching purposes.................................C

[Jules]

Re: Joining fabric

cut all three.

[Guest]

Re: Joining fabric

I think we need to talk about that.....................C

[Jules]

Re: Joining fabric

mmmm

[545shelly]

Re: Joining fabric

Jules,

This has made me feels better about my last disaster with 1/2 drop width that I couldn't initially match. I had cut all three drops too !!! Fortunately they turned out stunning but I will never cut all the material before matching it again!!
jane

[suel]

Re: Joining fabric

I have just had this problem with two pairs of curtains I have recently made. However it was a single colour damask type fabric, and I have made the decision not to match the patterns at the joins vertically as I would have lost about 10 " of the fabric on each drop, if I had matched properly there would have been no hem allowance. I do not think that the pattern not matching will be obvious. I am hanging these today, so we'll see!
Again this was a case of the customer supplying their own fabric, and you just don't know until you see it - do you.

Had a similar problem with 6 romans I made recently. To get the pattern in the centre, I had to offset the centre of the fabric, so when I joined the widths there was an equal amount of fabric either side. This was incredibly wasteful, but fortunately I noticed that the pattern was not central before I cut anything. It took me about 3 hours to cut the fabric out! It would have been very noticeable on a Roman.

Nightmare - customers own fabric again!
Sue.

[Jules]

Re: Joining fabric

Hi Sue,

I'm sure the curtains really do look fab once hung. Will wait to hear...