Made me some roman shades last night...out of metal mini blinds!
Genius, right?! I wish I could say I came up with the idea on my own, but I found it online.
I made two 24" x 75" roman shades in about an hour. (I had already done the sewing though, so tack on extra time for that). Scroll down for photos and instructions on how to make your own....which you will want to do once you see how easy it is!What you'll need:
-Fabric scissors
-Regular scissors
-Mini blinds that fit your window. Mine are the ghetto metal kind...from the 80's and already installed. Perfect.
-Fabri-Tac (fabric glue....it's awesome. If you can't find it in the store, purchase it online. Now that I've used it, I would NEVER attempt this project with a different adhesive.
-Fabric for your shade. I suggest something pretty heavy so it will fold up nicely when the cord is pulled.
-an iron
Here are my windows.
There are 3 cords on a mini blind. Two that go on the outsides of the blinds that are attached every inch with a tiny thread (like a ladder) and support each blind in place. These are the tilt cords. They're gonna go.The third cord runs through a hole in each blind. This is the lift cord. This is the cord we want to KEEP.
Close your blinds so they are all the way to the bottom of the window. Fully closed.
Run your scissors up the front of tilt cords, snipping the little ladder strings. Cut the tilt cords at the top and base. All the blinds will slide out of place to the bottom and you should be left with is a stack of blinds at the bottom with the lift cords running through them...like this:
Do some math to figure out how many blinds you will need to have one every fold in your shade. I like the look of 9 inch folds (pretty standard for a roman shade) so I kept 7 blinds. My top fold is a little larger than the others, but I never fully draw my shades, so I liked it this way.Using some heavy scissors, snip out all the blinds (except the one's you intend to use, obviously).
Leaving your blinds long how they are (to perfectly fit your window) take them out and lay them out on your fabric. (fabric should be face down. Blinds should be face down-the convex side down) Cut your fabric so you have a 2-3 inch boarder all the way around. Space out your blinds on the fabric.
Bust out the Fabri-Tac and start gluing. I started at the bottom, and worked my way up with the slats. Then I went back and folded the sides over and lightly glued them down. When you glue the slats down on the fabric, make sure the fabric is not wrinkled, and that you don't get any glue on the string, because you will need the cord to be able to pull through the holes still.
When your glue has dried (5-10 minutes) go over your outside seams with an iron to set the crease a little better.
Ta-Da!
I'm also making little cornice boxes to sit a the top and cover the exposed hardware....eventually I'll to those!Hang it up and admire your fabulous, INEXPENSIVE project. (How much are cheapy metal mini blinds? Like THREE DOLLARS!?) I was going to use a twin sheet for this project, but my mom sent me two tabbed panel curtains in brown, so I used those. Unfortunately, the curtains weren't long enough to cover the length of the window...hence the orange fabric added to the bottom. I think it pulls the room together nicely, and it will be so great to have blackout curtains in the nursery! Most importantly, I no longer have to look at broken mini blind slats, and this project was nearly free.
I also wanted to do something about the super ugly, but super cheap, easy to clean, and very comfortable rocker glider that we've had since Reese was born. I used a leftover scrap from the bedding and recovered it.
You probably have to see the finished bedding to appreciate how cute it looks in the room, but I love how it turned out...and it took LESS THAN 5 minutes. Love the No-Sew projects!You should see the shades in the daytime...they're even more fabulous with a tiny hint of sunlight filtering through them.
Finished bedding= Separate post.
...coming soon.
