Thursday, March 18, 2010

Sheer Fabric on the Pretty Pleater

Hello Mini People!
I have a tip for you for d.Anne Ruff's Pretty Pleater. Mary, my friend, needed to make some shears for her living room. She had some full size shears she picked up at her thrift store. I have to say here she is the best thrift store shopper, and she has the best thrift store, ever. I live in a little bigger town with more available and I can't find a thing! Anyway, she was having trouble with the pleats staying in and the iron interfacing wasn't going to work because it would show through. The fabric was definitely polyester, but I think this could work on other fabric's content. I would think twice about using it on silk, though.
First glue your hem in and be sure that you have enough fabric allowed for the length of the window. Spray the fabric with spray starch and lay the fabric, wrong side up onto the pleater and start making the pleats. Make sure all of the pleats stay in, use extra pieces of strip wood to keep them in. Iron with a dry iron. Leave the fabric in the pleater to dry. I wanted to spray the fabric with a varnish, a finish, something to sort of make a hard finish on the fabric to keep the pleats in. Mary had Krylon's mat finish so we used that. I would mask off the part of the pleater that doesn't have fabric on it. I don't know how the Krylon and a hot iron would react to each other. I suppose you could clean the pleater off, would paint thinner hurt the rubber? I sprayed a couple of light coats and let it dry. I carefully peeled off the Pretty Pleater, not the fabric, and the pleats stayed. They turned out beautifully. The Krylon didn't show through to the other side. Follow the Pretty Pleater instructions for the rest of the finishing for the curtains.
I hope this helps, I know I stayed away from doing shears because I couldn't get them to stay pleated. Sometimes when someone asks you about a problem you think about it a little harder and you find the answer.

TTYL Kris

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