Hello everyone!

I hope that you are having a great FALL!! I love this season!  Well the weather here has been snowy, rainy and cold.  When the weather turns colder, I like to make sure that my windows are covered.  This year I decided to add Roman shades to my children’s windows.   The thick fabric that I decided to use will help keep the cold air out, as well as sunlight and will provide some privacy when my children need it.

First thing I did was measure my children’s windows.  Lucky for me they were both the same size.  I then went and picked out some heavy cotton fabric that my children would enjoy.  For the little kid’s room I picked out a blue back ground with bright orange circles.  It is a fun pattern.  For my oldest daughter, she already had white muslin curtains with a purple sheer fabric covering them, so I wanted something that would go with what she already had.  So I chose a medium gray with tons of white flowers all over it.  The end result is wonderful in her room.

I wanted to go with a Roman shade, due to the fact that my children are very hard on blinds and in 3 years, I have hung 2 sets in both rooms!  I wanted something more permanent.

With the blue shade I wanted the room to be darker in the day when the baby was napping, so I decided to line it with the same fabric.  With Leatha’s grey shade I did not want her room to go to dark, so I opted to just hem the edges and not use a lining.  The result in each room is just what I wanted.

I also picked up some 1×3 inch board (furring strips from Lowe’s) cut to the length of each window (This will be used as the header board),  Some screw-eyes, some wood screws, a String Cleat for each, some bias tape with ½ inch rings already sewn on it (also known as Roman shade tape) and several yards of nylon cording.  Also have an electric drill handy or a strong person with a normal screwdriver.

If you can sew a straight line, you can make a roman shade.  You can also use hot iron tape hems if you want to make a roman shade without sewing.  Of course I took the sewing method.

After picking out the fabric I cut the fabric to fit the window, left to right, plus 2 inches.  I left the height of the fabric uncut, it was tall enough to wrap around the header board and adjust there for length.

With Leatha’s shade, because there is no fabric to line with, I went around the sides of the shade and the bottom and made a folded hem with the 1 inch that I left on the sides and the bottom.  This will make a perfectly fitted shade for her window.

For Cameron’s shade I put the right sides of the fabric together and sewed the two sides and the bottom of the fabric, taking up my 1 inch extra I left in the measurements.  I then turned the Shade with the correct side out, and ironed the shade flat.  I took a top stitch and went around the entire shade to keep the seams from rolling.

The rest of the constructions for the shades are the same, starting with applying the Roman Shade tape to the back of each shade.

To figure out how much Roman shade tape is needed for a window, first measure the windows.  Depending on the width of the window you will either need 4 or 5 rows of tape so it doesn’t droop.   So, if the window is 30 inches, you will need 150 inches of the roman tape.   You will need to place several columns of Roman shade tape on each shade that is made.  I put the first two columns of Roman shade tape 2 inches from the right and left side of the shade.

Then I placed another column of Roman shade tape, every 10 to 12 inches along the shade.  I used the zipper foot on my sewing machine to help me apply the tape to the shade.

(Roman shade tape attached to the Roman shade that I made for Leatha’s room)

With the windows shades that I made, I needed 5 columns of Roman shade tape for each window.  When purchasing the Roman shade tape make sure you get a few extra inches, this will make it easier for you to make sure that the tape starts with a ring at the same place on each column of tape that you place.  This tape is cheap, I think we spent .79 cents per yard on it.

That is all for today, The rest of the construction will be here tomorrow!  Be looking for new items on the website and on ebay, we are getting ready for Christmas!

Thanks again for reading my craft corner!

Until Tomorrow,

Brenda

Tags: crafts, roman shade, sewing