I'd take my chances and take the fabric too. I'm sure you'll be able to find someone somewhere who can work their magic on it. And I can't imagine them having a problem using existing fabric. For example, I always source the fabric myself and then bring it to the upholsterer to use. He never has a problem with that.

I'm just stunned that you're going through this. I mean this project has been nothing but difficult for you with all of the out of stock/no longer manufactured stuff you've already been going through, and now this of all things.

Only thing I can suggest is to make sure that the first words out of your mouth on the first day of the month are "rabbit rabbit". That might help.

This is really a regular thing with me. But I've avoided even worse.

I was waiting for an estimate from a reputable (to that point) contractor who just seemed to vanish. Then I saw his picture on the news. He ran over a pedestrian while lighting a crack pipe and was in jail.

In my last apartment I had a contractor (hired upon good recommendation) who had some kind of nervous breakdown and disappeared. I had trouble finding someone to even look when they found out it was a started project. When I finally found someone some 6 months later, I had to track him down anyway to get him to sign a legal document that he was separating himself from the project before they would take over.

A very reputable ornamental plaster restorer turned my project over to an apprentice who messed things up so thoroughly he fired her in my living room, and abandoned all his equipment in my house including a half room of scaffolding. I found someone to clean up that mess a year later.

We were 4-1/2 years without a working kitchen.

This is kinda nothing, in comparison (so far).

Have you tried finding someone on the Main Line? Lots of folks out that way have custom draperies.

Will he give you his invoice price on the fabric, rather than the mark-up? I assume he was making something it.

The Main Line is where he had most of his clients I think, and Cherry Hill. I haven't really looked out there so much, but I will. The thing is, I don't so much want an interior designer, I just want someone to measure, get fabricated, and install. So I am part of the problem here.

I would take the fabric/rod etc. You will find someone to fabricate for you. I have always found my own fabric for custom draperies.

I hope things get better!!

The invoice price is a good point, but I will be most happy if he can help me find someone to finish this up.

You say he is looking for someone to take over?

What about waiting a bit to see if he can?

Is it possible the workroom will rebuild and be back in business? If not, they may be able to recommend someone else. Will he give you their name?

Oh my. I'm surprised *you* haven't had a nervous breakdown!

I'd hate to turn down the opportunity of a full refund so you can get out of this mess and start fresh But this poor guy--it's not like he was negligent. I would take option #2 simply because certainly some good karma has to come your way soon. But it would be with the stipulation that he find a replacement. Certainly he knows others in the trade, right?

What is it about your area that lacks fabricators? I can think of 3 of them in my area off the top of my head. I understand, overall, custom sewing work is a dying art but custom drapery isn't so passé that quality fabricators cannot be found, is it?

I've never run accross a workroom that wouldn't use COM. Usually, they prefer it. I would take everything and find a workroom. There must be a bunch in a major metropolitan area like yours.

Do you happen to know if he had reasonable business insurance? If so, it may give you more freedom to choose the option best for you, knowing his insurance is going to be there for him.

Pal, you are thinking along the right lines. I agree with Chibi. Charging you the invoice price would be fair to you and the fabricator, or at least a discount of it. He did have to do paperwork etc. and was involved in the process, so maybe he can get a small percentage for that.

Although a pain, I am sure you will be able to find someone else to make the drapes.

Good luck.

Pal - a poster on this forum recommended The Village Workroom in Doylestown and then it was seconded by someone else. My SIL lived in Doylestown and she too had heard good things about them but never used them since they're only open to the trade and she didn't use a decorator.

http://villageworkroom.com

With all the building going on in the city I'm beginning to think that it's hard to find any decent tradesmen willing to take on a small home project. DD purchased a home in Philly and for a house warming we bought her a new washer and dryer. But she's still trying to find someone to run gas and water lines - and this an unfinished basement where all the lines are easily accessed. I'm even considering paying my plumber to cross the Delaware but I'm not sure he's licensed in PA.

I am kind of surprised that everyone agrees that he should essentially be paid in full up to this point. I feel like if I had posted this in the Kitchen or Bath forums, everyone would say I should demand a full refund. "You haven't paid them, yet?, I hope" always seems to be one of the first comments.

I've never run across a workroom that wouldn't use COM. This may be true, I don't know. I have, but it may be a one-time thing where they didn't like doing it. On the other hand where I grew up all the upholsterers and fabricators were COM. They were craftspeople only they weren't running a sales business.

There must be a bunch in a major metropolitan area like yours.
custom drapery isn't so passé that quality fabricators cannot be found, is it?

Again, I don't know yet :)

One of my older interior designer friends recommended the same fabricator that just burnt down. Another acquaintance told me they "had given up" on local workrooms, and now charged an hourly rate to the client to go through the custom order books and facilitate order at Calico Corners, Shade Store, or Smith+Noble Pro.

As for being passe? I see custom drapery in very expensive suburban properties and in more average properties in a few small neighborhood areas.

But think about this forum. In the last year, out of all the window treatment questions, how many people were having drapery made as opposed to leaving windows bare, buying pre-made panels, or having blinds fabricated?

Now, out of that fraction, how many were having flat panels that would be hung as rod pocket or on rings, or essentially fixed versus full-on lined drapery with a header treatment like pinch pleats or ripple fold, plus sheers, all to be hung on a traverse rod that actually mechanically opened and closed the drapes.

I bet this last number is close to zero.

Also I wonder why he is getting completely out of drapery, saying he can't find a workroom he likes. It could be he doesn't like change, or something as simple as most other workrooms have their own people to do his part of the process or that they themselves are expensive enough that he couldn't charge enough to make his own profit.

Under these circumstances, I'd take the full refund offered.

I would probably take the full refund too. Custom workrooms are hard to find in my area also. You are more likely to find an individual who does this, although that is not easy either. What type drapes were you having made? There is a blogger I have followed (in fact she used to be a regular here) who uses a workroom in the Atlanta area. I spoke with them about some drapes, they will work with people in other states. If you are interested, I have the shop name.

I did get custom lined pinch pleats once...does that count? It was about four years ago now though and that Etsy seller is out of the business. I contacted local drapery companies but none would do with customer's own fabric. Etsy sellers are much more accommodating that way but likely wouldn't be up to your standards.

It appears that I have some fabrication options. I just have to navigate the options and decide which one I am most comfortable with.

1) Village Workroom. I will have to hire an interior designer to work through which seems kind of redundant since I am one, but it's a possibility.

2) Allure. Right in the city. They have in-house designers and installers and their own fabric library. They may still fabricate with someone's fabric.

3)John's. Down in Fabric Row. Their fabric, my fabric, their measurements, your measurements, they seem flexible.

4) My SO is now a real estate agent. A friend in the office is married to an interior designer. Since we know the agent and sort of know the interior designer, in passing, this may work as a transition.

5) I did a very large drapery project about eight years ago. Floor to ceiling wall to wall ripplefold drapes and sheers in an entire apartment. The client had his own fabricator. I was happy with the results. I don't have the client's current contact information but I am trying to track that down. Maybe that fabricator/installer could take over.

6) The fabricator I have has found a designer who works in the local design center who occasionally has private clients and has access to a workroom.

The current "problem" is that I have a number of options but most of them I know little about, or involve getting a different third party involved or both.

I know the work that my soon to be ex installer installed and it was good. I thought the work my client had installed and it was good. The others are unknown quantities at this point.

At the root of this part of it is my fault. I am an interior designer/"the trade". But I don't have my own tax ID or reseller's license. Since I do very few jobs, I have tended to do hourly rate and go retail. I didn't want the potential tax implications. I would declare the general income from the hourly rate, but since I was doing retail the taxes were paid, I did not have to worry about collecting sales tax and such. So it's kind of been laziness on my part. There have been a number of occasions where it would be worth it for me to have my own tax ID number and resale license.

How long before you have to make the decision? Can he hold it long enough for you to make some phone calls, have a couple of appts to see if there are people out there who would fabricate using your own fabric?

The hardest part of a decision for me is choosing the fabric, that gives me the biggest angst and once it's chosen I don't want to go through that decision process again. So for me, I would keep the fabric.

We have 4 sets of custom drapery in our home that was done about 5 years ago and before that as well. It's the only way I have ever done drapery. It would never dawn on me to buy ready-made panels. My parents did custom - I do custom. But yes, we also have blinds on some windows.

Good luck.

I don't think custom drapery is passé. I think many people don't know how acquire it. My pet peeve is to go into a nicely decorated house only to find off-the-shelf drapery panels hung on clips.

"One of my older interior designer friends recommended the same fabricator that just burnt down." Perhaps this friend could act as your designer, in name only?

Perhaps this friend could act as your designer, in name only?

This is a possibility, yes.

I think many people don't know how acquire it.

This is probably a big part of it. And even if you do know how, it seems to require jumping through hoops. I mean, after losing this one workroom, the guy I was using decided to drop drapery altogether rather than start up with a new workroom.

The hardest part of a decision for me is choosing the fabric, that gives me the biggest angst and once it's chosen I don't want to go through that decision process again. So for me, I would keep the fabric.

I have angst for a different reason. The room these are going in has a connected bathroom. When I chose the floor tile, I started looking for fabric that needed to meet a number of criteria for drapery and for a matching shower curtain. Then I started looking for paint colors. I had to buy a Natural Color Systems Paint Deck with 1950 colors in it to get a shade that I felt worked with everything, and believe it or not getting the room painted was probably the single most expensive step in this process. So it's kind of backwards in the case, it's not "just paint" that I can change if I have to start over with fabric, and if anything the cutting from this dye lot looks better than the original sample I had. So I really do want this fabric.

I think if you really want the fabric...you should definitely get the fabric. Even if you have to pay a bit of a premium to the next fabricator.

Here's a weird question: do you have somewhere else in the house you want to use ripplefold with lower commitment fabric? I'm wondering if you could do a trial run with a new fabricator instead of handing them the keys to the car.

Here's a weird question: do you have somewhere else in the house you want to use ripplefold with lower commitment fabric?

Not so much, no. My house is a wreck, and we started to do one room at a time in a very controlled fashion, at which point the plumbing stack developed a hole which required jackhammering up the floor of the bathroom were were saving until last, and the bedroom we were saving until last developed multiple leaks requiring the replacement of both roofs --one of which does not technically cover the bedroom. (complicated) But I spent part of the winter sleeping with a plastic tarp on my bed. We've been working two solid years and we are finally getting close to finishing one bedroom and one bathroom. (And it's better that there was a major plumbing failure and a major roof failure before anything was done, I understand that)

So this is the first and only room anywhere close to being done, and I am not sure the other windows that will probably get ripplefold are less of a commitment: twenty feet of floor to ceiling treatments needed on those windows.

I had custom drapery made 3-4 years ago by Calico Corners for my dining room, living room and master bedroom. Both CC's fabric and COM. They did a so-so job, but I had no experience with any other fabricator. That is the down-side to custom. Ready made drapes can be returned. I could have gone back to CC and complained, but it seemed to be too much hassle with a whole house remodel going on. I wish you the best of luck with your project, Pal.

I commend you for still being sane in those circumstances (or at least apparently sane on the internet).

I found my fabricator from my fabric store. Then the most recent one on the Internet. I didn't know anyone here at the time and figured I would take a chance. Turned out he's awesome but yes, it was risky.

Pal, too bad you don't live close. I know my ID friend and several others would recommend their fabricator who does a beautiful job. She has made custom drapery for me several times including one set of ripplefold and I'm quite sure she or any other designer & fabricator here would let you use your existing fabric. Especially given the circumstances.

You're talking about the fabric only, right, and purchasing the lining, blackout and sheer fabrics from the new fabricator? Unless you have already purchased those, it might be a bargaining chip to use. I love ripplefold, btw. Wishing you the best of luck. I don't know how you stay sane, but you certainly have rationalized all the bad events very well and taken things in stride.

Pal, I used Village Workroom several years ago to make my custom drapes for tall windows. I measured myself, and ordered through their website. Didn't need an ID, but maybe that is because I used one of their fabrics? They did a beautiful job.

That is good to know for future reference, thanks.

I jumped ahead, but sometimes mysterious fires occur with insured businesses. During the LA riots in the 90's, some of the damage was insurance fraud.

This was electrical apparently, and I believe it, in this city.

Between about 1994 and 2010 there were three major fires (multiple buildings in each one) just on the block I live on, and they were all traced to electrical sources. (In one of the buildings it was the third major fire in its history, it keeps getting smaller and smaller.)

Yikes!

I love your positive attitude and your perspective, Pal.