US2941592A - Drapery hook - Google Patents

Description

June 21, 1960 s. SCHWARTZ ETAL 2,941,592

DRAPERY HOOK Filed March 17, 1958 INVENTORJ- 6/04 5 Y 6 CHM/4919712 DRAPERY HOOK Sidney Schwartz, Detroit, Mich., and Harold E. Guenther, Plymouth, Mich. (both of E-Z Sew Enterprises, 533 E. Forest Ave., Detroit, Mich.)

Filed Mar. 17, 1958, Ser. No. 721,736

2 Claims. (Cl. 160-348) This invention relates to a drapery hook and more particularly to a hook for supporting draperies fashioned with custom-made pleats.

In making custom pleats on a drapery, the upper edge of the drapery is folded back on itself to form a rather wide hem. In many instances, a stiffening material, such as crinoline, is inserted in the hem. Thereafter, at trans- States Patent versely spaced points along the hem, the fabric is gathwith the two outer folds tacked to the upper edge of the drapery on opposite sides of the vertical stitch line. Hooks have been proposed heretofore for supporting such draperies. Usually, such hooks are provided with a pair of fingers insertable in the pockets adjacent the vertical stitch lines and provided with a hook member welded to the fingers and adapted to be engaged with a slider member on the traverse rod. The weight of the drapery is supported by these hooks; and unless the hooks are designed to tightly grip or clamp the fabric, there is a tendency for the pleated lower edge portion of the drapery to pull away from the hook and hang down with an unsightly appearance.

The object of the present invention is to provide a drapery hook that is designed to tightly grip the fabric at the pleats and thereby prevent the pleated portion of the drape from pulling away from the hook, either by reason of the weight of the drapery or by reason of the transverse pull on the fabric that results when the drape is either opened or closed.

A preferred embodiment of the drapery hook of this invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a fragmentary front elevational view of a drape provided with a custom-made pleat that is adapted to be supported by the hook of this invention.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary rear elevational view similar to Fig. 1 and showing the manner in which the hook of the present invention is arranged within the pockets provided by the custom-made pleat.

Fig. 3 is a side view of the hook of the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a front view of the hook of the present invention. A

Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line 5-5 in Fig. 2.

Fig. 6 is a sectional view taken along the line 66 in Fig. 2.

Fig. 7 is a sectional view taken along the line 7-7 in Fig. 2. a

Fig. 8 is a sectional view taken along the line 8-8 in Fig. 4.

Referring to the drawing, particularly to Figs. 3, 4 and 8, the hook of the present invention comprises a length of spring wire fashioned into a pair of vertically extending fingers 10 and 12 which are connected at their er ice lower ends by a U-bend 14. The upper ends of fingers 10 and 12 are formed with spherical enlargements 16 for facilitating insertion of the hook. Intermediate their ends and at a point adjacent the upper ends of the fingers 10 and 12, they are bent inwardly as at 18 to provide a pair of fabric gripping portions. The fingers 10 and 12 are generally straight and parallel between the inwardly bent portions 18 and the U-bend 14.

A hook member 20 is arranged at one side of the plan of fingers 10 and 12. Hook member 20 has a hookshaped upper end 22 which is connected to a vertically depending shank having a lower portion 24 and an upper portion 25 connected by an an inwardly bent section 26. The lower end of shank portion 24 is secured, as by spot welding, to the center portion of the U-bend as at 28. In the process of welding the shank portion 24 to the U-bend 28, the metal at the juncture of these members becomes mushy and the members are squeezed together to form the fused connection so that the shank portion 24 is parallel to, but lies partially within, the plane of the fingers 10 and 12 (see Fig. 8). The lower end portions of fingers 10 and 12 adjacent the U-bend 14, these portions being designated 10a and 12a,'are generally straight and spaced relatively closely to the shank portion 24 of the book. This close spacing between the lower ends of fingers 10 and 12 and the shank portion 24 provides a fabric pinching zone and is a primary feature of the invention here. The significance of this close spacing is illustrated most clearly in Fig. 5.

A fragmentary portion of the drape with which the hook of the present invention is used is designated 30 and the custom pleat formed thereon is designated 32. This pleat comprises three folds 34, 36 and 38. The pleat is fashioned by turning over a relatively wide hem portion 40 at the upper end of the drape. Within this hem portion may be arranged a strip of stiffening fabric 42, such as crinoline. At transversely spaced points, the folded hem portion 40 is gathered and formed into the three folds 34, 36, 38, thegathered portion being vertically stitched such as at 44. The three folds may be tacked together at the lower end of hem portion 40 as at 46 and the two outer folds 34, 38 can be tacked to the upper edge of the underlying fabric as at 48 to provide a neat appearance to the pleat.

This construction results in the formation of pockets 50 on each side of the vertical stitching 44 which are open at the back side of the drape at the lower edge of hem 40. The hook is engaged with the drapery by inserting the fingers lit and 12 into the pockets 50, one at each side of the vertical stitching 44. The upper portion 25 of the shank of the hook is spaced from and is parallel to the plane of the fingers to provide a fabric entry zone which facilitates insertion of the fingers into the pleat pockets. The construction of the hook described is such that when it is fully inserted into the pockets 50 as shown in Fig. 2, the drapery is effectively clamped on the hook and displacement of the drapery relative to the hook is prevented. Adjacent the upper end of the hook, the fabric of the drapery is pinched between the two inwardly bent sections 18. However, an even more effective gripping or clamping action on the drapery fabric is provided at the previously referred to fabric pinching zone adjacent the lower end of the hook. The gripping action at this zone is obtained by reason of the relatively close spacing of the portions 10a and 12a with respect to the lower shank portion 24 of .ing the hem portion.

vertical stitching 44 is pinched between the shank portion 24 and the respective finger portions a and 12a. The spacing s between the adjacent surfaces of the shank portion v24 and the finger portions 10a and 12a is slightly less than the thickness of the uncompressed fabric form- In the arrangement shown, this comprises two thicknesses of the fabric portion 40 and one thickness of the stifiener 42.

tions 1.0a and 12a.

By way of example, a drapery hook formed of spring wire having a diameter of between .080" and .090" very eflectively grips a drapery of average thickness when the spacing s is on the order of .030" to .050. In that particular hook, the spacing between the adjacent surfaces of the finger portions 10a and 12a was about and the shank portion 24 projected into the plane of the finger portions 10a and 12a a distance of about .625" to .030". The book referred to effectively gripped the hem portion of .a drapery formed of a relatively shear fabric and at the same time could be inserted into the pockets formed by the hem of a drapery fashioned from a relatively heavy fabric.

Thus, it will be seen that the drapery hook of the present invention is designed to support draperies having custom-made pleats in a very attractive manner. The gripping action afforded by the inwardly bent portions 18 is of less magnitude than the gripping or pinching action afforded by the lower end of the hook. However, the tendency for the drape to slip through the hook is muchmore pronounced at the lower end of the hook than at the upper end thereof; and as long as the drapery is effectively gripped at the lower end of the hook, the pleats will retain an attractive appearance.

We claim:

1. A drapery hook adapted to support a drapery having a custom-made pleat including a pair of adjacent vertically extending pockets open at their lower ends provided by vertical stitching, said drapery hook comprising a pair of straight, verticallyextending, spaced, parallel legs, and a connecting portion of relatively small vertical extent lying entirely between the axes of said parallel legs, a hook member positioned at one side of the plane of said fingers and having a shank which has an upper portion parallel to and spaced forwardly "of the plane of said legs, and a lower portion olfset from the upper portion and parallel to and substantially between said legs, the lower portion being Welded adjacent its lower end to said connecting portion, said lower end portion of said shank lying medially between and parallel to said parallel legs and being closely spaced with respect thereto, said parallel legs and said lower portion of said shank being co-extensive in a vertical direction for a distance one the order of at least several times the spacing .between said parallel legs, whereby the fabric forming the lower end of said pocket is tightly gripped immediately above the point at which said shank is welded to said connecting portion and throughout said co-extensive distance between said lower end portion of said shank and saidparallel legs.

2. A drapery hook .as defined in claim 1 wherein vertically extending fingers are connected at their lower ends to the upper ends of said parallel legs to form extensions of .said legs, said fingers being bent inwardly to ward each other at a section remote from said connecting portion to provide a secondpinching actionon the fabric at a point spaced substantially above .the lower ends of the fingers. i

References (Iited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,553,373 Pearlmutter May 15. 1951 2,558,467 Solomon June 26, 1951

Images