From Roller Shade to Roman Shade: An Update
| March 26, 2012 | Posted by Jessie under Before and After, Fabric, Master Bedroom, Sewing Projects, Window Treatments |
In an effort to keep it real around here, I had to make some adjustments to my beloved fabric covered roller shades this weekend. They worked fine for awhile and then as I was trying to pull it down to raise it up last week, a large pop sounded…it was the breaking of my heart spring snapping from the weight of the fabric {this happened to both shades}. Sad day. I do think this method could still work if you used a very lightweight fabric. My home decor fabric is gorgeous, but not the right choice for this project looking back. However, I loved the look of them so much and the room darkening effect of the vinyl shade, that I wasn’t about to throw them out and start over. So after a lot of brainstorming, I decided with a few little tweaks, they could become beautiful faux roman shades.
It really didn’t take much work. The only materials I needed were yarn, scissors, tape, a large needle, and a few nails. I started with the top roller part. Since the spring broke, the shade wouldn’t stay up anymore so I decided to simply tie the roller up with yarn. I measured the shade to make sure that when we have the blinds down, the shade will cover the whole window. Then I took some yarn and taped the end so it would be able to thread threw my needle without fraying.
Then I threaded that through my needle and tied a knot {and, yes, that’s my bandaged hand from the chisel/stitches incident. It’s healing up just fine. My at-home-doc, Mike, can take them out this weekend and then we can all forget it every happened mmmkay?}.
Next, I simply pushed it threw the fabric and roller shade from the front around to the back of the roller.
I cut off the knot and needle and tied the two ends together in a knot over the roller to keep it in place.
I did in four places spaced evenly across the roller to make sure it was nice and secure. Then I hung it back up and decided how large I wanted my roman shade flaps to be. I created some small loops along the side of the shade with the same yarn and needle by threading it through {being careful not to thread it through the front of the shade} and tying a loop.
I have three loops on each side, spaced 19″ apart. Because I was going to be hanging the loops on small nails inside my window frame, I added a little white ribbon to the edge of the shade to give it some extra width to hide the nails. I just hot glued it on to save time and keep it simple.
Then I spaced out my nails inside the window frame to create even layers of the shade and hung my loops on the nails.
I’ll admit they aren’t quite as functional as the roller shades {it takes a minute to hang the loops on the nails when I want to raise it}, but the truth is, we rarely pull up our blinds anyway. We don’t spend much time in our bedroom just hanging out so it won’t be too big of an ordeal to loop it up every now and then {they will stay down most of the time}. Most importantly, they are pretty. Let’s be honest, that’s really all that matters:)
And, yes, that’s a sneak peak of our partially painted and partially built bookshelves! I’m getting really excited-it’s looking great!
very nice! I found a tutorial on Pinterest (of course!) to DIY a roman shade from those plastic Venetian blinds (which I currently have in our bedroom) and an old sheet — I’m GOING to do that!! Yours turned out wonderfully, so that’s more inspiration to get my own project in gear!
Thanks, Mo! I actually made one of those when we re-did our closet a few months ago. It turned out great {and works!}. Good luck with yours-I’m sure it will be beautiful!
That is so neat! The fabric is perfect too! I never would have thought to do this…I think it’s so clever! Would you link up to my party and show it off?
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[...] check out this post to see how I have changed these [...]
always so inspired when i stop by tip junkie tuesdays!! great post, and hope you’ll come visit at my blog where i have a fabulous giveaway right now: http://www.hellolovelyinc.blogspot.com/2012/04/april-giveaway.html
smiles.
michele
[...] you can catch up by reading about how we did everything here: fabric covered roller shades turned faux roman shades, bookcase styling and reveal, built-in bookcase tutorial, and how we added [...]
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[...] and me yanking on it a little too hard snapped the spring:( So onto plan B…faux roman shades. The roman shades have worked wonderfully and look great in the [...]
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