Done at Last!

Some of you may recall that back in January, I was sewing theatrical drapes, for reasons that seemed good at the time. I'm going to omit pictures, because frankly, it all looks the same (and not very interesting at that).

I finished a big batch of it in March, and in April I was in a drape hiatus (it got bumped out of top position by the sweater), but finally, finally it is done. The last six pieces are bagged and waiting for pickup, the drifts of fuzz have been chased around the room with a broom- I swept some out, but I have a suspicion that there are some larger clumps evolving into fuzzy new life under the baseboard heaters.

The project debrief:
(Mainly so if I ever have to con someone else into make additional drape, I'll remember how it happened.)

Black pieces: 10' 9"
Tan pieces: 10' 1"
Seam width 0.5 inches.

Design:
The finished length is 10 feet. Single-sided drape (black) was cut to 10' 9", and a casing sewn in each end. Double-sided also had a casing sewn in each end and the sides were left open. The double-sided drape methodology could be used to make lined curtains, though I would consider leaving a ruffle at the top, sew a casing in only one end, and possibly omit the supporting flap (unless the fabric was very heavy).

Directions:
1. Sew the selvages of the pieces.
2. Put right sides together on a flat surface, with the tan fabric centered on the black such that there are four inches of black sticking out from each end.
3. Pin the two pieces together, and mark a line at the 4.5" mark at each end (such that there is 10 feet of cloth between the lines).
4. Sew along the marked lines.
5. Turn the piece right side out, and pin with the seam at the top and bottom, such that only one color shows on each side. You will have a flap of the black fabric folded inside- this is to form a casing so the weight of the whole drape is not suspended on a seam. Sew the ends of the flap to the tan side, so that a pipe cannot be inserted down the wrong channel.
6. Lay down the end, smoothing it so that all three layers lie flat.
7. Measure 3.5 inches from the seam and mark the line across the drape with a row of pins.
8. Sew across this line, forming the casing. Drape has casing on each end to extend the life of the drape (also ensuring that the panel is still usable at the event if one end is damaged).

La, a Note to Follow Sew

In between work and karate practice, I hung out in a bookstore for an hour and finished the hat:


To get the clean color transitions in ribbing, I used the trick of knitting the first row after the color change. I spotted this on a blog quite recently (within the last month or two), also for a hat, but I can't for the life of me remember where. And while a Google search has turned up a couple of mentions of this trick, I'd love to find the blog that I read it on. Anyone?

And now that the hat is sewn up, I've stopped wondering if it's big enough and have started wondering if it's *too* big! I tried it on and ribbing aside, it slithered right down over my eyes until my nose stopped it. Then of course I had to go measure my own head to try and figure out if it's exceptionally small- seems there's a five and a half inch difference in head circumference between me and the intended recipient. I'll hopefully be seeing him this weekend, and will find out if it fits!

Other than that, I'm still sewing drape, and finally got a finished picture.


As it turns out, there's more drape pinned now than I can sew tonight and pass along before the weekend, so the sewing will continue on the weekend and into next week. My goal for the weekend is to get enough done that I can get the library cleaned up and move the mess back into the sewing room.

Sew, a Needle Pulling Thread

The project goal:
Make reversible sound baffling drape, (one side light, the other dark) until the light-colored material ran out. Then make plain black drape with any remaining black material.

We started with two gigantic rolls of fabric:


And we finished with piles of cut fabric:


We had less than 12 inches of each left at the end:


We turned out only 5 completely finished reversible drapes (about 20 linear feet when it's hung), but there are a couple in progress, and with all the cutting done, we've actually done a substantial amount of the work for the whole project. And there's a lot of prep work I can do for the next session without needing a second pair of hands.

The sewing turnout was small (not unexpected given the short notice). But it was a good thing there were some volunteers, as I had overlooked a couple of wrinkles that would have made this project extremely difficult to do alone. For example, measuring and cutting ten foot plus lengths of fabric is easier with two people.


And matching up two different colored pieces of that size and straightening them (for the reversible drapes) would have been quite difficult by myself. In particular, toward the end of the evening, when we were trying to get all the fabric cut, we found that two people made an enormous difference in speed. If I were doing this again, I think I'd try to get one curtain done to establish sizing, and then do all the cutting in one bunch.

The finished drape is on its way to its onstage debut next weekend. And I'll have to see just how much more can be arranged to join it this week. My chances of getting more done are looking up, as I was saved from the pain of shoveling the latest ten inches of snow by my lovely neighbor Bob and his Mighty Snowthrower. All hail Bob!