Gotta wear shades; Roman Shade Tutorial, Monthly Contributor
Hello Everyone!
My name is Shannon, and I can be found blogging over at Posh Pieces. I am so ecstatic to be here today! Cassity is the best letting me hang out over here at Remodelaholic.
Do you want to make some shades with me?
My little guys room has been in need of some serious light screening. In the summer months the sun sets on the front of our house where his bedroom is. With the sun going down after 9, and as late as 10 sometimes he can have a hard time sleeping. Last summer I actually had to tie up a sheet over his blinds to screen the sun. Yeah, a sheet, tied up to the blinds. It wasn’t cute, so I wont show you that.
It’s Spring, and the sun is staying out later these nights which means it is time to take down the sheet and fix my sons window covering.
There are a lot of different techniques out there on how to make roman shades. Do your searches, you will find many choices. The Little Green Notebook has a great tutorial as well, it is the same tutorial I followed the first time I made these.
Supplies:
Mini-blinds – I have used cheap style as well as the faux wood style.
Fabric -including a backing fabric such as muslin or blackout fabric.
Scissors
Fabric Glue or hot glue depending on fabric choice ( More on this later)
Ribbon if you chose
The first step is to dissemble the blinds. Remove the plugs from the bottom and save them for later.
Then you want to cut and remove the outer strings. Cut along the ladder string portion on each slat. Be careful not to cut the middle lift string which runs up the middle of the ladder through the slats.
Plug
Now remove the slats, and leave on only the amount of folds you want in your shades. Each slat = 1 fold.
I kept 5 slats.
Prepare your fabric, and lay it out on the floor. You will want to lay the blinds face down on the fabric with the back side of the blinds facing you. You should have about 2 inches of extra fabric on both sides.
Position your slats at the desired location and spacing you wish. I would measure both sides and mark with a pencil so that when you glue you dont have to remeasure.
Now you are ready to glue!
**Some tips on glue**
I have used fabric glue, as well as hot glue. Both worked well. The fabric glue worked well on lighter weight fabrics, like linen or cotton. However, the fabric glue bled through my heavier fabric, and left dark wet looking marks all over my fabric that never went away. Do a test first. Trust me, you dont want to waste all that fabric and time to find out the glue bled through.
Lets glue!
Start gluing each slat down to the fabric being cautious not to glue the pull string.
Now you want to fold over that extra fabric you have on the sides onto the slats. I had a little more than 2 inches so I created a fold, and then glued the fold to my slats. This created nice even line on both sides.
If you are using fabric glue, it will take a while to set. You may want to set some heave books in the folds to get a good hold.
Are you ready for the final steps?
Position your backing over the blinds you glued down, and cut any excess off. Glue the backing on in the same locations you glued the fabric on, gluing the sides and along the slats being careful not to glue the pull string.
Now your ready to attach the bottom piece and secure the fabric to it. First you will want to replace the knot and plug in the bottom piece, making sure it is even all the way across. Make sure the knot and plug are VERY, VERY secure. Again, trust me here. You don’t want the pull string to come out of once everything is assembled.
Fold the fabric around the bottom piece and glue.
Here is the before picture of my sons room.
See more ideas:
Cassity Kmetzsch started Remodelaholic after graduating from Utah State University with a degree in Interior Design. Remodelaholic is the place to share her love for knocking out walls, and building everything back up again to not only add function but beauty to her home. Together with her husband Justin, they have remodeled 6 homes and are working on a seventh. She is a mother of four amazing girls. Making a house a home is her favorite hobby.
>Amazing!! They look great. Thanks for sharing!
>Great tutorial – I really like the linen ones!
>Awesome! Thanks for sharing.
>What a great tutorial! We are renting a house right now and this is a quick way to update a room with out doing permanent damage to the walls. Gotta love that!
>Oh how jealous I am!! I have been wanting to make some roman shades but I have an old house with REALLY old wood window and NO window sill! Now with this easy peasy way of making them I am evem MORE JEALOUS!! I hope to have roman shade worthy windows someday!!
>This is brilliant! I am filing this away in my must-do-this-one-day file. Thanks for following my blog (I am returning the favor!).
>Love this- I have been wanting to do this but still need to find some fabric for my kitchen. Quick question- where are the pulls for the finished project? I can see them in the kitchen pictures behind- but I am not sure I understand if they are behind the fabric before hanging or if you pushed them back for pictures.
Thanks for your great diy projects- my husband and budget thank you!
>I LOVE this project and I've already linked you on my blog as I intend to do this as soon as I can find time for MULTIPLE rooms in my home! I definately don't want to risk loosing this tutorial, so I linked it here: https://stresstheseams.blogspot.com/2010/04/pirate-curtain.html
Thanks for the AWESOME tutorial!
If you used strips of Velcro instead of glue to attach the fabric, you could take the fabric off to wash it.
Great tip! Thanks for the comment, Frances!
Thanks Frances for the velcro idea. Now I have to see if I still have sticky back velcro. I have at least two wood blinds for huge windows whose ladders are breaking, but not the center pull. I’m so excited to have an alternative to throwing them out. Yay!
I like this idea, but I would rather make pockets for the slats so the fabric could be washed or changed out. However, I have not looked into this option myself.
I have metal blinds that are curved. Would this work with that style?
Do you think using canvas would be too heavy?