Sew a DIY Roman Shade

If I could write a love song about one of my most favourite DIYs for home, it would definitely be about window coverings. The verse would be something about searching for delicious fabrics, and in the chorus I’d belt out all of the things I love to make to put over my windows. “Oh, grommet topped drapes, you’re so good to me. No-sew fabric covered blinds, you’re my Boo. I love gorgeous lined drapes and super easy drapes, and I love me some Roman shades too.” And then my husband would roll his eyes and all my friends would run away. Well, maybe not my fellow slightly-weird friends because they love me and they can appreciate a good drape song. But seriously folks – making window coverings yourself is a MUST learn if you want to add some personal DIY pizzazz to your home. You can add a pop of pattern or colour that infuses your space with YOU. Today, let me share with you one type of DIY window covering that I haven’t shared here yet: a Roman shade.

Roman shades always look so lovely and tailored. They’re the perfect sort of window covering for a narrow window, a window where you want some privacy, or a window where you don’t want a drape that hangs to the floor. I made this pretty little Roman shade for our guest cottage kitchen which you can tour right here.

NOTE: This is NOT a good option for any window that a small child can access because of the string!

If you’d rather not sew, you might like these no-sew fabric covered shades that I posted about a few weeks ago. If you DO want a fabulous sewing project, you should definitely try this one out! The pleats and drape of this Roman shade make it looks extra fancy.

This gorgeous large-scale black and white plaid fabric is from OnlineFabricStore.net. I absolutely adore it! I’m tempted to get it in a couple of other colours for my own home. (Check out the coordinating toile I also found at OnlineFabricStore.net in the guest cottage bedroom here). This is one of my absolute favourite places to get fabric online. Their fabrics are beautiful and trendy, and I always love their superb customer service!

Now, let me show you how I made this gorgeous Roman shade.

Materials:

• 2 yards decor fabric
• 4 wooden dowels that are 1/4″ in diameter and are as wide as you want your shade
• A 1 x 2 piece of wood that’s as wide as you want your shade
• 2 brackets to mount the shade to the wall
• screws for wall mounting
• 2 eye screws
• thin nylon string
• 8 small plastic shade rings
• wood staple gun
• sewing machine
• needle & thread

Instructions:

Cut a piece of fabric that’s 2 inches wider than you want your shade to be, and 7 inches longer. Remember that you want your shade to completely cover the height of your window (and even a bit more) when it’s fully let down. I used Premier Prints Anderson Black fabric from OnlineFabricStore.net for this project.

Press the sides and bottom of the shade over 1/2″ to the wrong side. Fold another 1/2″ and press again. Sew these hems down with a sewing machine. Make sure to leave the two ends of the bottom hem open so that you can slide a dowel through it later.

Now it’s time to make the rest of the dowel casings. Subtract 3″ off of the remaining height of your fabric (for stapling your blind to your piece of wood later on) and divide that by 4. The resulting number will be how far apart you want each dowel casing. Mine were 14″ apart. Start measuring from the bottom, and mark where your dowel casings will be with a pin.

Fold your blind right sides together at each mark and pin. Sew a 1/2″ seam at each mark and then insert a dowel into each casing you’ve created.

Next, hand sew the small blind rings onto the blind. Sew one on each side of the dowel casing, about 3″ from each end.

Prepare the wooden hanger by screwing on the brackets about 1″ from each end, and screwing in the eye screws about 3″ from each end as shown.

Staple the fabric blind to the piece of wood by wrapping the blind around the thick side of the wood and onto a thin side as shown.

Finally, it’s time to tie on the nylon string that will pull the drape up and down. Use the photo above as a guide, and tie one end of the string onto the bottom right ring. Thread it upwards and through each ring above, through the right eye screw, through the left eye screw, and down through all of the remaining rings on the left. Leave at least 6″ of extra string and cut off the rest.

For the left side, tie one end of the string to the bottom left ring, thread it up and through each ring above, through and over the top left eye screw, and then back down through all of the rings on the left again. Leave extra string and cut off the rest.

Make sure to use good, solid square knots when tying the string so that it doesn’t come loose.

Mount your Roman shade above your window using the brackets.

Install a hook or screw at the bottom side of your window to hold the extra string and wrap the string around to keep the shade in the desired position.

And you are done!

Doesn’t that look so chic?!

Make sure to check out all of the other rooms in our recently finished guest cottage to see where else we put this fabric:

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by OnlineFabricStore.net. As always, all of the opinions here are my own. I only recommend companies that I use and love myself.