Roman Shades

Curtains!!! Again? Absolutely. This time I made Roman shades for my eat-in-kitchen windows. Of course, the inspiration was a Pinterest post. Here’s how I decided on the fabric for the shades: I was at JoAnns Fabric store (when am I not?) and decided to take a stroll through the Home Décor fabrics. The minute I saw this fabric I was sold. Unfortunately they only had about 1 yard in stock at this particular location. So I had to order more fabric and wait a week for it to come in. I ordered about 8 yards because I wanted enough to make 4 shades even though I only have 3 windows…just in case I botched my first attempt.

Supplies:

Mini Blinds

Fabric

Heat and Bond 

Spray adhesive (or fabric glue)

I followed the instructions, from the blog 365 days to Simplicity, with the addition of a few little tweaks of my own. I could not use the existing blinds because they were yellowed with age and held together with tape. It was also very difficult to raise and lower these 20-year-old blinds. So, I bit the bullet and bought new mini blinds for each window. Maybe that’s an improper turn of phrase. They were only $4 each so it really wasn’t that bad.

Instructions

First measure your window. Mine was 70 inches by 23 inches. I wanted the edges to hang over a little.  I wanted enough fabric so that my final product would be 70 inches by 25 inches. So I cut 75 inches by 30 inches of fabric for my curtains to allow for hemming the sides. 

Now extend your mini blinds all the way out. Cut out the string in the blinds that looks like a ladder (Its the one I am holding in the below picture). Do not cut the thick pull cord that this is wrapped around.

Figure out how many folds you want in your shade. This also depends on how large you want the folds to be and the length of your shades. I read that a good fold length is between 6-9 inches. I chose to have a fold of 7 inches. This is because everything is easier when things can be easily divided. For instance my shade is 70 inches long and I want a 7 inch gap between folds. That means I will have 9 blinds plus the bottom bar so 10 in total. 7x10=70.

Take off the bottom bar. Simply pop out the plastic button and untie the cord. Remove all but your needed blinds. That means for me I was left with 9 blinds. Now remember I said I wanted my shade to be 70 inches. So measure your mini blinds to 70 inches and mark that on the pull cords. Slip the bottom bar back on and tie the string at your marking. Place the plastic button back on.

Back to the fabric. I wanted my fabric to hang so that it was 25 inches wide. I folded the fabric over and made a hem on each side so that I had perfect straight edges which wouldn’t fray with time and use. I made sure that my final product was 25 inches wide. I creased the fold by ironing it down. I then took the hemming Heat and Bond and slipped it between the fold and ironed that down. This just makes sure my fold stays glued down.

Ironing my fold down

Placing Heat and Bond in the Folded crease

Perfect edges and ready for the next steps

I then found the middle of my fabric and made a median line. Similarly, I marked the middle on the blinds and the support bar at the top. This way I could just match up the lines in the middle and everything would be centered.

Make sure the blind pull is flush with the fabric. Also make sure that you glue it so there is room to pull the fabric up and over the top so you won't see the support bar.

In this picture you can see that the blind pull is flush with the fabric

You can use whatever fabric glue that you like. Many people used Mod Podge. From other projects I have done I have come to love and trust spray adhesive Its simple and fast and I was able to hang my drapes in minutes compared to the long time that other glues require to dry.

The Finished Product! Blinds half up.  

Blinds Down

Like always here is a before picture for a comparison 

Cost Break Down

Mini blinds: $4/ blind so $12

Fabric: 11/yard + 40% off so $52 (lots of fabric left over) 

Heat and Bond: Variety pack $6 (I still have tons left over)

Total: $70 or $23 per blind. 

Just for a cost comparison if I only bought the needed 6 yards of fabric for the 3 blinds my total would have been $58 Which is $19.33 per blind.

Compare that to the Roman Shades at Lowe's. The cheapest Roman shade is a plain white fabric that sells for $17.97 per shade. The cheapest patterned Roman shade has stripes and that sells for $39.96 per shade.