DIY Roman Shades by Picardy Project

decor, windows, diy

DIY Roman Shades

By Picardy Project on Dec 17, 2012

I've had the fabric sitting around my art room/office for many weeks now, and from the hours of 8 to 10am I can barely see my computer...

... so it was finally time to sew and build another Roman shade. This time there would actually be two.

And because the first time was such an adventure, I was hoping the second time around would go a lot easier.

I decided that because I really wouldn't be doing much opening and closing, I wouldn't use dowels. Everything else, though, went completely the same.

I laid out the fabric, cutting it and the white blackout liner down to size

Then they got sewn together

Then I measured out for my drapery rings. I went with four sets and made their distance away from each other, from the bottom to the top of the curtain, about 1" smaller each time (so that when the Roman shade is pulled up, each fold of the shade reveals a little snippet of the fold below it.

This is the point where I would have attached the dowels, but instead I just went with the rings. And once the rings were all sewn on, I cut a piece of 2x2 down to the proper width, measured out the length I wanted the shade (to graze the sill), and then wrapped the 2x2 and stapled it in place.

Once the first shade was done, I repeated the process for the second shade.

And then it was time to call in Chris to help me hang them (one person to hold, one person to drill). You can use angle brackets to drill them in, but with both Roman shades (or I guess all three), we've just gone straight through the 2x2.

Hanging them went pretty quickly, though I was very confused as to how my measuring resulted in a small puddle of curtain resting on the sill instead of the grazing I'd intended...

But they will be pulled open 99% of the time so I didn't bother "fixing" them.

I've never used blackout fabric, so I was pretty impressed by how well it actually blacked out the light...

I left it like that for a few days, but then I finally sewed on the little claw thingers that keep the cord in place, so that I could open them. And a word to the wise: If you intend on a semi-frequent operation of your shade, use dowels

I told the shade who was boss though, and we got it figured out...

I think I may raise them a little bit more to get a bit more light in, but I really like the way they look (and I don't want to lose too much of the pattern). I'm proud of myself that the second time around making a Roman shade involved very little swearing (no more than my normal language calls for).

Next up will be sewing one for the Cashew's room!

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