Stage Borders, Tabs and Legs - Wool Serge Stage Masking, Made-to-Measure in Australia by TSA
Borders. Legs and tabs. Masking, done right.
The drapes that hide your fly hardware and frame the stage picture. Wool serge workhorse, cut to your fly-bar spec, flame retarded to AS 1530 standards. Made in our Melbourne workshop, supplied Australia wide.
Spec your drape
before you call.
Answer five quick questions. The Drape Selector matches the fabric, fullness and opening style to your venue, then turns it into a PDF spec routed straight to our soft-goods team.
Spec drapes, hoists and venues with all our configuration tools →
Stock masking never fits.
Yours will.
Borders hung too short. Theatre tabs the wrong width for the system you have. Stage wings open to the audience line. Black drape turns grey under the house lights. Brickwork and backstage elements start to show through. Off-the-shelf masking will not solve any of it.
We measure, manufacture and install. Made-to-measure wool serge borders, side legs and theatre tabs, cut to your fly-bar spec, flame retarded to AS 1530 standards with the documentation supplied. Borders and legs are paired set-by-set so sightlines stay clean, masking remains consistent and the proscenium presents as intended. It is one part of the full Drapes & Accessories range.
Four jobs, one black.
Different cloth,
different black.
Wool serge is the masking workhorse, but the right cloth depends on the job. Here is how the four masking fabrics compare, and how to spec the one your venue needs.
What do IFR / DFR / NDFR mean?
FR ratings, defined once: IFR is built into the fibre and is permanent. DFR is a durable treatment that survives wash cycles before retreatment. NDFR is a surface coat that degrades with moisture. We explain the ratings here, and fullness and pleating here.
The masking that vanishes.
Matte, dense and non-reflective - wool serge soaks up stray light instead of bouncing it back, so legs and borders read as true black from the seats. It is the workhorse for masking: borders, legs, tabs, blacks and travellers. IFR by nature, so the rating never lapses. Heavier than molton, and dry-clean only.
When the stage drapes are the feature.
The front-of-house cloth: deep nap, full colour and the weight to hang in clean folds. Where wool serge is built to disappear, velour is built to be looked at - spec it for feature stage drapes, valances and house-side reveals, not for everyday masking. Inherent grades hold their FR for the life of the fibre; some velours are treated, so we confirm the rating on the colour you pick.
The budget black, three metres wide.
Brushed cotton on a 3.0m roll - the wide width cuts seam count on tall drops and keeps the cost down on studio, temporary and touring masking. Lighter and lower-cost than wool serge; the trade-off is the FR. It is a surface treatment, so it degrades with moisture and needs a retreat after any wet exposure.
Full blackout, low weight.
Stops light without the bulk - a DFR-treated cloth that kills bleed behind a thinner face fabric, or stands alone as a blackout layer. Choose it over a heavier serge when you need total opacity but not the weight on the bar: tech blackout zones, masking layers and linings. Durably treated, so it survives cleaning cycles before retreatment.
These four cover the masking work. House curtains, cycloramas, scrims and printed backdrops each call for a different cloth - tell the Drape Selector the job and it specs the right fabric, or browse the full soft-goods range.
Our soft goods,
on real stages.
Cut, sewn and FR-treated in our Melbourne workshop, the home of Reveal Drapes for over twenty years. Same team, same craft, now backed by the scale of TSA.
See all projects
Moulin Rouge! The Musical: a workshop that didn't stop.
Every drape, banquette and piece of soft scenery manufactured in-house through 18 months of lockdowns.
Read the project
Cairns Convention Centre: 36 hoists, one ceiling, every brief accepted.
A 36-axis hoist array and five-chord box truss, the turnkey overhead rigging behind the Great Hall.
Read the project
Australian Outback Spectacular: 4,000 shows. Five flying rigs. Zero missed cues.
Seven-plus years servicing five performer flying rigs and the full stage automation system.
Read the projectThree PDFs, sent to your inbox.
Questions
about borders & tabs.
If your question isn't here, call us or send a brief - we'll come back to you with the right answer for your venue.
Call 1300 439 872 →Tell us your masking
specification.
Build it in the Drape Selector, or send your fly-bar spec. We'll match the fabric, custom-make the borders, legs and tabs, and supply the AS 1530 paperwork with them.