DIY: No Sew Faux Roman Shade

As many of you may know when it comes to sewing the main expert on that in this family is Jon! Last summer I tried to conquer the sewing machine and even made a couple of toss pillows, which came out great, but in the end me and the sewing machine decided we were better off as friends.

 

Which means I leave all of the sewing in the hands of my seamstress or my husband.

 

For weeks now I’ve had fabric sitting in my craft closet just waiting to be turned into a roman shade. Now for my seamstress to do it that would be around $130 bucks and Jon is not that handy to make one from scratch so I took matters in my own hands last night.

 

Here are my supplies:

- Iron

-Heavy Starch

-Spray Glue

-Stapler – That’s right an office stapler! I said no sewing!

-Striped Fabric

-White canvas fabric to use as a backing

-Scissors

-Ribbon Trim

-Hot Glue Gun

-Piece of wood cut to the size of your window

-Wooden or metal dowels

-Tape Measure

 

Step 1: Measure your window. My window was 34” wide so I added an extra two inches on each side and made sure I had a 38” wide piece of fabric. The length of it is up to you and how many folds you want to make. I made my piece 60” long.

 

Step 2:  Iron everything with heavy starch.

 

Step 3: Get a nice fold on each side of the shade and secure the white backing to your fabric with a light mist of spray glue.

 

* Before you spray glue measure you piece one more time and make sure that you still have the right the width. We had an extra 2” on each side to fold over.

 

 

Step 4: Start making your folds. Due to the heavy starch your fabric will be nice and stiff so it will help you make your folds. Once you find a size you like just staple away!

 

* Use a tape measure and make sure each of your folds are equal.

 

Here are my 4 folds all finished and individually stapled:

Step 5: Is optional. Since I had extra fabric I decided to wrap my mounting piece in fabric so that you didn’t see exposed wood on the sides of the shade.

 

 

Step 6 is attaching your faux shade to the mounting piece of wood. We had a bit of extra fabric so we decided that we just wanted the shade to cover 23” of the window. So that is where we stapled the shade to the wood.

 

Step 7: After stapling our faux shade to our mounting piece we realized we need a little bit more support in the folds so we stapled the folds to each other.

Step 8: We also added metal dowels to hold the space:

Step 9: To make sure our folds weren’t going anywhere we also flipped our shade over and spray glued each fold to the backing.

These folds aren’t going anywhere and we didn’t have to use a needle and thread anywhere!

 

Step 10: To hide our staples simply use a glue gun and add some decorative trim.

* Don’t you love my manicure? I got my nails done on Friday and come Monday night they were trashed.

 

Voila all finished! To hang you faux shade you can either use the mounting piece to screw it directly in your moulding or ceiling or pick up some L brackets and use that instead.

Here is a side shot:

We used existing hardware from an old shade we use to have in the space. I think I want it to lay a bit flatter to the window so we are going to mount it directly to the moulding this evening.

 

Because this is a faux roman shade it will not go up and down. This is not a problem, because we have a roller shade installed behind it that can easier be rolled up or down.

 

I know there are bunch of versions of faux roman shades, but I wanted one with absolutely no sewing, because for me even a straight line can be tricky. This fit the bill and works great in my space.

Come to my window

Lately I’ve had window treatments on the brain!

More specifically I’ve had window panels on the brain that give off that great world traveler/ethnic /earthy vibe.

One of my favorite textile designers for that look is anything from John Robshaw:

The man just hits it on the nail every single time. I just want to wrap myself in all of those fabrics!

Another favorite has to be Madeline Weinrib. Not only are her rugs, “I die” beautiful, but her great use of pattern continue on in her fabrics as well.

Here is one of my favorites:

While both of the above options are rather high in price they are not the only ones available to get a similar look and feel.

West Elm has a great alternative:

Ballard Designs has a different, but similar take as well:

But my favorite chic and cheap solution is to go the DIY route. If was going to do this I would make my own panels with drop cloths. One package for $10 could easily make two panels.

Then to get the pattern on instead of the block printing technique the lovely designers above used I would make my own foam stamp.

All you need is craft foam make sure to get it half inch thick:

Then either draw the design free hand, print out an image from the web to copy or use a cookie cutter.

Cut it out and glue to a small piece of wood and voila a custom stamp. Make sure you use fabric paint so that they can be washed.

The stamp technique would work best with a simple pattern such as the medallion print from West Elm.

If you wanted to do a much busier pattern I would make a custom stencil instead.

This site has free printable stencils that you can copy onto stencil paper or free hand the design yourself on stencil paper and use an exacto knife to cut it out..

I found one example of it from the blog: Homemade By Jill

I’m now itching to try these techniques out myself!

Have you done anything similar in your own home?

I’ll be your best friend if…..

You can help me figure out who makes these roman shades in the images below or where I can find a pattern for them or some poor soul to help me make them.

I spotted them in the latest Serena and Lily catalog and figured that they sold them, but I couldn’t find them on their site.

Also seen here:

You are probably now asking yourselves what do you get out of me being your best friend. Well here goes:

1. I’m super funny so you’ll always be laughing.

2. I love horrible TV shows so you’ll have someone to share your dirty little TV secrets with. Come on the Bachelorette starts tonight. You need someone to dish with.

3. Umm I make amazing desserts and can send some your way.Just don’t blame me for the extra pounds sent your way as well!

4. I can help you decorate any room in your house!!!

5. I can always get my hubby to help you with handy man type jobs around the house.

6. I’m a bit snarky. I’ve also been obsessed with the word snarky this week so I’ll probably be saying it none stop.

7. I’m full of useless celebrity facts.

8. Ok I can go and on, but I won’t bore you anymore. I’m just the greatest and super cool so please please please help me with my latest dilemma. Please.