Southern Drapery is a To the Trade soft furnishings workroom crafting custom drapery and window treatments exclusively for interior designers. We exist to let designers shine, handling the technical complexity of soft furnishings so they can focus on vision, not fabrication logistics. Our team blends time-honored sewing craftsmanship with modern project management technology, ensuring every custom detail is tracked, precise, and delivered on time. From first measurement to final install, we partner closely with designers, treating every project with the same care we'd want for our own. Craft is the thread running through everything we make.

Christine McLean has been creative and entrepreneurial her whole life. A Michigan State University graduate, she spent 15 years in pharmaceutical and medical software—founding an electronic claims processing company in the early 1990s and later becoming a partner in a medical software firm—before stepping back in 2005 to raise her family and rekindle her love of sewing.

In 2012, a project making drapery for her own bedroom led to a bench cushion class, where she impulsively bought the workroom's industrial machine. Her first client project followed in November 2013. Over the 13 years since, she has built Southern Drapery into a full custom soft furnishings company: taking courses, attending conferences, investing in equipment, and creating a production system—complete with a client portal—that lets her team of six scale with precision.

In 2022, Christine became a Tory Burch Foundation Fellow, a milestone that let her purchase the building now housing her workroom in Birmingham's design district. She partners with high-end interior designers nationwide, meeting the to-the-trade industry's need for transparency and faster turnaround, while bringing rooms to life through careful pattern placement, draping, and precise measurements.