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.