I just finished making a set of three blinds over the holidays, and I’m very excited about them.
Aren’t they gorgeous?
During the day they pull up into nifty folds, making a low profile accent. Even men who dislike window treatments can live with Roman blinds. These shades aren’t hard to make, and they don’t take very many hours from start to finish. But this project was such an exercise in procrastination that it took me half a year to get them done.
This link provides great step-by-step instructions on how to make Roman blinds, diagrams included. She sells the hardware you’ll need–professional quality rings, cord, velcro tape and pulleys–and the website tells you what to get. They’re cheap; buy extras. Here’s the pile of stuff to assemble before you begin:
fabric and good cotton lining (from Ebay), curtain hardware (from the site above), and weight bars (steel rods from Home Depot).
That was the first big delay.
It took more than three months between the time Bob located the hacksaw for me and the time I actually cut the rods to the right width. Actual time sawing? About 45 minutes.
The next procrastination point came up as soon as I did a little cutting and ironing.
The curtain material is a heavy woven cotton, so I need to hand-sew the lining (I’m modifying the regular instructions because the outer fabric is so heavy). I was taught (by someone who really knew) that a bedrock rule of curtains is: don’t be afraid of hand sewing, it makes them lie smoother. Easy to say, but hard to carry out. Since I couldn’t do this next step by machine, I procrastinated.
It took exactly four weeks to get the lining sewn to the shades.
Actual time to sew these six seams? 3 hours, or 1 1/2 showings of 27 Dresses after dinner. Not exactly hard labor.
These shades use velcro at the top, and a weight bar at the bottom. Here I’ve sewn the velcro strip to the top edge,
and
here the velcro is sewn over
to neatly seal the fabric and lining together.
One more seam along the top of the velcro so it’s firmly held to the fabric and lining, and the top is finished. This process doesn’t take very long, but now it’s time for more procrastination. The fabric was cut to the longest length it could be and still have the pattern repeat at the same place… and it turns out the shades aren’t long enough to fold up the bottom to make a pocket for the weight bar. Time to procrastinate again!! I put them aside for a week.
Up to this point, I’ve spent 4 months and one week procrastinating, and 4 hours and 15 minutes actually making the shades. Of the so-called “worktime”, three hours required a romantic comedy as entertainment.
Thus endeth Part 1.
This is so funny because I’ve been thinking (procrastinating??) about making Roman shades for a couple of bedroom windows - so this is a great post from you. I will definitely look at the link you put up. Your picture of your Roman shades are gorgeous - really, they look wonderful - up or down. I’d say you did a fabulous job - look at well the fabric design matches on all three windows - very impressive!!
You really did a great job on those! I hadn’t heard that rule about hand sewing — I can see the reality of it, though. But that would be enough to make me procrastinate, too. My current procrastination is re-painting my kitchen cabinets. I first made the plans 1 1/2 years ago and they’re still waiting….
those look just beautiful, very professional. you are very talented. I truly enjoy your website, I’ve always loved colorado, this is like taking a little peak into everyday colorado life.