After months of drooling over the instructions at Little Green Notebook, I made my own shades! I modified the instructions a little because I was worried about keeping the slats straight. I also took a chance on hot glue, since I didn’t have fabric glue on hand. It worked pretty good, but it is easy to pull everything apart when you want to. So far it is staying put for normal use.
First I had DH hang the blinds, and then I took scissors and snipped groups of 6 slats. By leaving the ladder threads intact everything stayed nice and straight. This left my spaces 6.25 inches apart which is pretty close to standard for Roman Shades.
I did do a little sewing. After measuring the length and width of the blind, I cut my fabric that size plus 1 inch all the way around. Then I serged and hemmed all the raw edges. To make the ruffle trim, I cut strips 3.5 inches wide, sewed them together in a very long strip and hemmed it with a rolled edge. Then I ran it through my ruffler with a 1/2 inch seam allowance down both edges.
It helped to steam iron everything flat before top-stitching it place on the shade. The final effect was a puffing strip with a ruffle on each edge. I love it!
Once the shade was stitched together, I hot glued it to each slat and across the top (leaving the top edges free so I can take it down.) I glued it while it was hanging and gravity made everything hang straight. I love how it looks except that I can see the slats though the shade. I didn’t want to use black out fabric because I like plenty of light in the room, but I wonder if I should have done it anyway.
Dear Angela,
I have enjoyed reading and learning since receiving your newsletter. Please could you tell me what kind of sewing machine do you use?
Thanks!
Veronica
Veronica,
I have 3. My main machine is a Janome computerized model. It was discontinued, which is too bad. The new model isn’t nearly as good. My backup machines are a manual New Home and Kenmore ($1 at a garage sale.) I use them for my daughters and to teach sewing lessons, and when I’m using several colors of thread and don’t want to keep switching. They are almost identical to each other and were both made by Janome. I’m kind of partial to Janome made machines which come under many different brand names. They break down very little and if they start messing up usually changing the needle and cleaning out the lint fixes it.
Hi Angela!
First of all, I’ve been receiving your newsletter and reading your blog for several months, and you have helped me run a tighter household in so many ways! Thank you so much for all of your hard work for everyone else’s behalf!
Next, I love your ADORABLE ruffled roman shades! I absolutely love them. And I love that the slats show through! A lot of bought roman shades would have seams where your slats are, so they give a similar look. I don’t think they take away from the shade at all. Great work!
They look great! I’m wondering, though, what is the point of using the blinds? It sounds complicated compared to just making a regular roman shade.
Love Every thing about this Site 🙂
God bless you and the familly .. 🙂
Sending you Huges ,loads of light & love xox
Tabarak 🙂
I am so glad that I saw this! I am redoing our Master Bedroom a little at a time. This is perfect for our two windows! I was about to take the blinds down and throw them out but not now!!! Thanks!
I’ve tried to do this; however, I’m sooo smart and tried it with a very large window. Didn’t work out so well. It’s a great idea and works great on windows of normal size not 70″ wide.
Love the ruffling effect. I’ll have to try this on my daughter’s window.
These look amazing. I was actually JUST looking for roman shades today but they are SOOOO expensive. I do know how to sew and I’m certain I could give this a try.
Thanks so much for the inspiration!