briellethefirst posted: " Japanese shop curtains. I'm making some to shade the west wall on my house, hoping to keep things cooler. OK, they're my version of Noren-style curtains, since I've never been to Japan and have only seen them in pictures. I've tried a solid piece of clot" Brielle's Avalon
Japanese shop curtains. I'm making some to shade the west wall on my house, hoping to keep things cooler. OK, they're my version of Noren-style curtains, since I've never been to Japan and have only seen them in pictures. I've tried a solid piece of cloth staked from the eves to the ground. It tears. I've tried a screen and a blanket. They blow up onto the roof. I'm hoping the nature of the curtain anf the cloth it's made from will prevent these problems, at least most of the time.
So, I found about 2 yards of 60" wide canvas in my cloth stash. It's a nice red so I can paint stuff on it. I also found some dark blue canvas scraps to use as reinforcing at the tops of the segment separations.
To start with I used a square to even it up.
I cut a bit off each end.
I folded it in 1/2 then in 1/2 again to find out how wide the segments will be. Then I could plan the decoration.
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I took the opportunity of a trip with a friend where I'd have to be waiting for a bit to plan things out, so here's the plan:
Fold-hem edges so the edge inside the casing would be finished.
Sew the casing for the dowel to run through.
Sew a simple hem in the bottom, too.
Measure the segments, cut and hem the edges of the segments.
Sew on contrasting rip-stops at the top of each future cut, over the top ends of the cuts to strengthen them.
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So, I got out my iron, ironing board and sewing machine to get the edge hem folded and sewn. First I ironed a single fold along the edge.
Then I ironed it a double fold. No, you don't have to iron it first, but it does make it easier to manage, as do pins but they get in the way and you have to keep stopping to take them out. It's bad to sew over pins.
And then I sewed the hem flat. OK, my machine wouldn't sew more than an inch or so before breaking the thread. Did all sorts of things, cleaned, bought new needles. Almost bought a new machine but that's another fiasco story. Many loud bad words, 3 trips to a big box store and a few hours later I gave up, had dinner and did something else before heading to bed. Better luck tomorrow.
This morning I had a good night's sleep and 2 pieces of cold pizza so I was able to venture out on the great sewing machine quest. After 2 hours, a stop at the bank for a deposit, 1 Scottish-named fast food drive through, 3 big box stores (initials WM) and 1 big box hardware store (initials HD) I triumphantly came home with 1 large drink (the real thing and hey, it's hot in Mesa in the summer! dehydration is bad), 1 new low-end but adequate Singer sewing machine and a 6' dowel. Paco approves and the flowers are just because.
After unboxing and thoroughly reading the manual (all sewing machines are basically the same but each individual machine has its quirks) I started sewing. And promptly bent a needle after about a foot of sewing. And dropped it into the machine as I took it out of the holder! Doing better now. Got the first edge hem done.
Now repeating the ironing and sewing on the other rough edge, making sure I folded the hem in the same direction so there would be a front and a back. The hems are folded toward the back so the front looks smoothe.
Now to do the dowel casing. Iron the selvedge (the 'finished' edge of the cloth). This is the part of the weaving that was on the sides of the loom as it was being woven. It doesn't fray (come apart) like the cut edges do. Just a simple single fold will do when ironing this.
The casing just has to be folded over wide enough for the dowel to go through easily and not too loosely. If you're confident you can keep the space consistent go ahead and do it freehand, otherwise pin it. Using your fingers to measure helps.
Making marks along the way helps, too, although it's easier to use pins. I can't find mine and I don't want to run out to the store again, so I'm winging it with discrete marks at 2 3/4". Besides, it's on the 'wrong' side (back side) of the piece so it won't show.
Now sew the casing. At both ends, where the cloth is really thick, carefully hand-crank the machine so you don't break anything. When you get safely past the end then you can sew normally. I'm trying to keep the left edge of the pressure foot at the left edge of the fold.
Now check that the dowel fits properly. Ripping a seam is a pain, so no point in ripping 2 seams if it doesn't fit. Yes, that's a watermelon on the table.
Now do that again. I'm thinking a double seam will strengthen the seam. Don't want stress to tear open the casing and let the dowel out.
Since the bottom is also a selvedge edge it can probably go without a hem but I think giving it at least a single turn up will both make it hang better and protect it from wear and fraying longer, so iron it then sew it.
Now all the edges are taken care of it's time to figure out where the divisions will go. I want 4 panels so I folded it in half and found a bit of floor to lay it all flat.
I marked the edge of the fold,
folded the rest in half again to get an idea of the panel size and measured to find where the top of the divide should be.
14" is 1/4 length but 14" was too far down. 7" looked better so I marked there.
I unfolded it all enough to lay the center flat and joined all the marks.
Then came the nerve wracking part. Cutting! With Sophie's encouragement I made it through!
Now to get back to folding, ironing and sewing again. You know the drill, pausing only to feed our feline overlords.
Fold, iron, up both sides so you don't have to stop sewing when you need to turn at the end of the cut, but at the end of the cut ease the fold to no fold.
Sew until you run out of bobbin thread just before the end of the cut. I know I have a ton of thread somewhere, including red, but can't find it at the moment so I'll have dinner, buy some thread at work during lunch (why I have so much thread) and call it a night.
When you get back to the project on the morrow after work (because this has taken all your spare time over the weekend). OK I didn't get back to it on the morrow or even the 'morrow after that. I got back to it the next day off, Monday, but in the mean time I did find my box of thread.
Now wind the bobbin and finish the center panel cut.
When you get to the end of the cut, keep sewing to just past the end, turn the work, sew back and forth at the end of the cut to strengthen it and start back down the other side.
Repeat this for the other 2 cuts to make all 4 panels.
Now make the rip-stops for the top of the cuts. First cut some shapes to see what you like, then try them on for size. I decided on triangles this time.
Then make a nice pattern for the rip-stops, leaving room for a turn-under so they don't fray.
Cut them out
Iron the fold-overs and trim the corners to make them less bulky
Pin them and sew them on. Straight pins work better but I still can't find mine. Since I forgot to buy more (which would guarantee that I'd find the pins as soon as I got home) I used what I could find. Safety pins are not the best choice but I had them handy and they worked. I only stabbed myself a couple times. Also, a larger turn-under would have been easier to work with.
Close up of a finished rip-stop sewn on.
Now it's ready for decoration...or not. Of course I'm going to decorate them! Anything worth doing is worth over-doing, but that can wait til tomorrow. The crew of the Enterprise is now a band of Merry Men and I figure a good night's sleep is needed before the next part.
Now that you've had a good nights sleep it's time for the fun but nerve-wracking stuff. Fun because the art is finally happening, nerve-wracking because if it goes wrong I'll be devastated and don't want to start again after all this!
So, try the fabric dye on a swatch of spare fabric. I'm using Dye Na Flow 816 midnight blue.
Make a template for spacing the characters or whatever you want to paint on, if it's something that's space-specific. If it's just art go for it freehand (well, maybe do a bit of sketching with light pencil marks so the overall design doesn't get out of hand).
I've measured, found the center of each panel and lightly marked the areas to paint in the characters I want.
You can hardly see the pencil lines and they'll eventually wash out. It'll work but I got too much else done today and ran up against the end of the day so the actual writing will have to wait another couple days. I have to pop over to pick some stuff up at a friend's house tomorrow.
Before doing the actual writing on the cloth I'm practicing on the driveway. First I drew faint squares roughly matching the Noren. Mr Grey, the outside cat got bored and walked away.
Then I used water to practice on the driveway and make sure the characters would be balanced. When I was a kid Mom used to find things for us to do. It made us happy, sometimes we learned something and it kept us out from under-foot. Sometimes she'd give us each a bucket of water and a paintbrush and tell us to go paint the driveway and sidewalk. We'd paint to our hearts content, it would dry and be none the less for wear. Then we'd get bored and do something else, maybe climb a tree or make a fort.
I had hoped to get much of it done before losing the light at sunset, maybe do the rest in the morning. As I started the second character (4) I felt the first drop. Then a few more. I grabbed the book and stuff, put them under the porch, tried to finish 4 and had to grab and run as the skies opened up! Apparently big raindrops make the dye run a bit. The project is now spread on the bed in the back room to dry. I'll finish in the morning.
This is the cloud that got me. He wasn't there when I started. Now I know another way to make it rain here: do a project in the open that shouldn't get rained on! You can even see some blue sky still up there! If we didn't need the rain so badly I'd complain, but I'll just try to touch it up as I finish in the morning. Now to get a decent night's sleep since outside stuff, except for watching the lightning show, is not happening tonight.
What am I writing? My address in Chinese! Why not? It's going on the side of the house. But that takes up only 2 panels, so the other 2 panels will be my potter's mark (earth-mind/heart) and pottery/stoneware and the last panel will probably say Chicken Grandma House. Just because. If I ever get back to selling pottery I can put it up at the front of my shop when it's not needed for shading the house. I put this picture up on Facebook as a teaser on my project. A friend commented "Pie are round, cake are square" and now I have a way to remember how to write 'west' in Chinese!
Another 7 days, another weekend for me to work on this. YAY! A little practice on paper before heading back out to the driveway. Grapes make an easy snack, too.
Graphite comes off concrete easily so I had to draw the squares on the driveway again before practicing new characters for the Noren. Then I started again. Turns out concrete gets hot in 100 degree heat so I grabbed a pillow from one of the porch chairs to kneel on. No, it's not quite finished. I had to pop inside for water, Gatorade and a salty snack before the last bit.
The last bit of writing is done! No rain so far today but I did learn that even drops of sweat can make the dye run! Now back inside for more water.
After a bit of touch-ups and tea it's time to set the dye. Following the instructions I'm ironing from the 'wrong' side of the cloth with the iron on as hot as possible for the cloth. This is 100% cotton, so that's pretty hot. I used the scrap denim from the rip-stops as a backing to make sure the dye doesn't run onto the ironing board. Boy. 3 minutes is a long time! Especially when you have to do it 13 times! Then again for any spots I didn't see from the back side, so 15 times.
Now to wash in cold water and pray real hard that I did this right.
Success! It worked! I tossed it into the dryer to fluff it and start the drying then ironed it to finish drying.
Inserted the dowel and draped it to inspect. Paco approves. Too late and dark to hang now, I'll put it out tomorrow. Stay tuned for the final chapter.
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