Wednesday, June 6, 2012

I made professional looking roman shade using my mini-blinds

A few weeks ago, I had my kitchen, family and dining room freshly painted. It was time to change out the mini blinds in the kitchen for new roman shades. Since, I’m a pretty good seamstress. I decided I would make my own shades. I love challenges like these.


Before mini blinds & valance

After - new roman shades

After countless searches on the web for tutorials on how to make roman shades. I finally narrowed it down to 2 tutorials that I manipulated to my liking. I watched the YouTube video on “How to make Roman Blinds” by http://www.mydecozo.co.uk/. I really like the visual step by step instructions of the video. And, I liked that the shades look professionally made.

I also viewed several tutorials by http://www.terrelldesigns.com/ I really liked the detail tutorials with Terrell. The Hardware calculator is a nifty devise. Just answer a few questions and put in your window measurements, then it calculates and prints the cutting measurements for both your fabric and lining. And, it gives you a list of hardware you will need to use to make your shades.

As I calculated the cost for fabric and hardware I decided it may be more economical for me to use my own mini-blinds. After all the blind’s brackets are already attached to the window frame and the head rail includes a cord lock, it seemed like an ideal way to avoid re-drilling. After dissecting one of the mini-blinds and tentatively observing the head rail mechanism. I realized this was going to be achievable; no need to purchase a mounting board, pulleys, cord cleat, screw eyes or lifting cord. The mini-blinds cord lock pulley would be able to lift my shade with no problem and no need to install a cord cleat on the side of the window to hold up my shade.

I bought my fabric from High Fashion Fabric in Houston, TX http://www.highfashionfabrics.com/, they have the best fabric. It was a little costly but since I saved so much on the hardware I figured why not. I rather have a fabric I absolutely love then a fabric that is OK.

I wanted my roman shades to look professionally made just for my windows.  I opted NOT to glue the slats or wooden rods onto the fabric like I have seen in other tutorials.  Not that I’m against that method.  I did not want the skeleton of my shade to be seen on the back side (the side that faces the window).  I felt that the back side of the shade had to look just as nice as the front side.  Below is a picture of the back side of my roman shade. The wooden rods are housed individually in a rod pocket. It looks clean and polished. Love it!!
My roman shade tutorial is coming soon. I just need to finalize it.


2 comments:

Unknown said...

quite innovative indeed. just add few more styles and shapes like Roman shades concord, ca

Anonymous said...

Love the roman shades you made!
The material is gorgeous
I'd love to make some for my home but waiting for your tutorial on making the rod pocket on back of the blinds. Looks clean and professional compared to others I've seen