Roman blinds can add a nice look to any bedroom and you can give
them a custom touch by making them in fabric to match your
bedding or other décor in the room. These blinds are basically a
panel of fabric with laths encased in channels and cording to
draw up the lathes so it simply takes a bit of sewing know how
to make them.
When selecting material for your blinds, go with something that
is a medium weight and match the colors to those in your bedroom.
Here's what you need:
Medium weight fabric Curtain lining fabric 1/2" wood laths 2 X 1
wood batton to fit across the window Plastic rings Angle
brackets Screw eyes Nylon cord Tools such as a square, ruler,
pencil, staple gun, cleat and screws
First, measure the window height and width from inside the
casing. Cut the roman blinds material 2 ½" wider and 4" longer
than that measurement. Cut the curtain lining fabric the same
width as the blinds fabric and 2" longer.
Now you need to decide how many pleats or the size of the
pleats. Typically, a roman blind has 6" pleats so you'll want to
divide the length of your fabric - 4" by 12 since 6" pleats
would have the channels spaced 12" apart. So, if you are making
roman blinds for a window that is 48", you should have cut the
fabric to 52" (since you added 4" to the measurement). Then you
have to divide the original 48" by 12 (the size of each channel)
for a total of 4. So you will have 4 pleats in your blinds.
Mark the lining 1 ¼" up from the bottom edge with a hem line and
2" down from the top edge. To mark your channels for the roman
blinds, make 2 lines spaced 2 ½" apart starting 6" above the hem
line. After you make the first set of line, measure up another
12" and make another set, again spaced 2 ½" apart. Form the
channels by bringing the 2 lines together, pinning them and then
sewing them to form the channel for the lath.
To assemble the roman blind, put the blind fabric and lining
with right sides facing each other and lower edges matching.
Stitch the lower edges together. Turn right side out and sew
across the blind at the hem line. Pin the lining and roman blind
fabric together along the channels and stitch them together.
Baste and stitch the sides together, making sure not to stitch
up the channels.
To make the pleats in the roman blinds, slip the laths into the
channels and slip stitch the openings. Sew the plastic rings on
the lining 4" in from the ends of the laths on each side. Cut
the 2 pieces of nylon cord twice the length of the blind plus
the width. Tie a cord onto each of the bottom rings and thread
up through the rest of the rings to the top of the roman blinds
and let hang loose.
Now you can hang your masterpieces! Attach the top part to the
batton (you can use a staple gun). Now put the angle brackets at
the top of the window and attach the batton to the brackets.
Attach a screw eye to the batton on each side above the rows of
plastic rings. Thread the loose cord through the screw eyes and
over to the right side of the window. Slip a lath into the very
bottom of the blind to finish it off.
Viola! Now you have custom Roman blinds for your bedroom!
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