[Music]
hey everyone thanks for joining me on my
newest project I'm working to make a
Roman shade for my office um for those
of you that have followed my craft room
makeover videos you'll recognize this
fabric I picked this up a long time ago
and um I went to make a Roman shade but
I really didn't want to have to go
through all of the trouble of putting
together all the parts and pieces from
Amazon and then trying to figure it out
cu I found a hack for a much more
simpler process involving an existing um
set of blinds so that's what I'm going
to show you today how to make a no so
Roman shade using an existing set of
blinds or any set of blinds um and it's
so easy and it's actually a lot cheaper
depending on the quality of the blinds
that you buy so you're going to need
fabric um you're going to need fabric
that is the length and the width of your
window plus 4 in because you're going to
need two inches of overhang on the left
hand side two inches of overhang on the
right hand side 2 in of overhang on the
top and 2 in of overhang on the bottom
so that's really important um another
thing to think about is if you're going
for vertical stripes and you get a
fabric that has vertical stripes but you
have to turn it sideways in order to fit
the width of the window then you're
going to end up with hor horizontal
stripes so be very mindful of the
pattern of the fabric to make sure that
the orientation that you wish for it to
be used with is what you can use it with
based on your measurements does that
make sense hopefully okay so then you're
going to need a set of blinds um these
are like Venetian blinds or something
like that um obviously you'll need to
measure your window and then you can get
those cut at Like Home Depot or Lo um
you're going to need fabric for the back
which is to cover like all the hard so
just plain fabric will do unless you
want more of the same print but just
keep in mind that this part's showing to
the outside Bal so I wanted something
that would mimic the look of the other
windows when the windows are closed and
the other windows are white blinds so I
wanted white fabric so that it didn't
look off from the
outside um in order for it to be no
showell you're going to need to do um a
few little tricks but basically my
favorite one is this peel and stick
fabric f paint it's double paint tape
it's double
sided excuse me so what happens is when
you first peel
it you will get the sticky side on the
bottom and you'll apply it and then once
you're done applying it then you'll peel
the top part off and then be able to
apply more fabric to the top and it
really is heavy duty it works great I
wouldn't recommend using this for
projects that get thr the wash machine
often but if you're just using it for
standard like upholstery type projects
um pillows things that you don't wash
very often you will find that this is a
great product and it helps you to avoid
the sewing
machine um you will also need scissors
sewing scissors to well fabric sheares
to cut your fabric to size I got two
that came in the same pack at Walmart
and they work fabulously and then you
will need a t
okay so I have my blinds laid out here
on the floor flat and extended all the
way and one quick tip um for anyone that
has to go and buy these um make sure
that not only are you getting them cut
to the width of your window but also
that they stretch the length of your
window the height I guess I should say
so the first set of blinds that I tried
this on unfortunately left like 2 in of
a gap at the bottom so um when I redid
this silly me um my Misfortune is your
gain um I made sure to check on the
length as well as the width um the width
is obviously something they can cut the
length is predetermined so when you're
looking at the um measurements on the
box be sure to look for that so at the
very base of your blinds there's going
to be like a little pop pop or a snap um
more modern style blinds have like a
little snap these are kind older these
were the original ones that I was
attempting to not destroy originally so
here I have this little cinch so I'm
going to use scissors to cut that cuz
what I want to do is free this bar so
let me see if I can do that while I get
the camera rolling might be a little
tricky okay so I'm going to make sure
that I cut the
Cinch all right so that
and I'm going to repeat that
on the other
side it
off find my
[Music]
cinch
okay this and it's
free okay so the next step is to find
your uh vertical lines there's going to
be three sets one 2 and three and in
this you're going to find that there are
horizontal so this is the vertical goes
up and down this is the horizontal right
here the one in the center cut these
because you're going to need to get rid
of all these slats and you got to free
them up so be sure not to cut your
vertical line you need this
intact so let me see I'm just going to
go up just snip the
center all right so all of those lines
have been cut so now I can go over and
just pick up all of those
slots
we Slide the vertical lines out of them
course
so when you're done cutting the
horizontal lines to free up the vertical
lines from all those slats you're going
to hold on to maybe between 5 to 10 of
these they're going to be part of the
system that allows you to Hoist the
Roman shade up and I'll show you in just
a
moment okay so after I've cleared all
the slats and I've cleared all the
little extra fuzzies on the line this is
what I end up with with three long
vertical lines that I will be um
basically using as the lift hoist
mechanism of this Ren
shade so now I'm going to prep my
fabric um for the slacks to be
placed okay so I have four different
slacks that I use here and I um plac
them evenly 6 inches apart from one
another I'm not placing anything at the
bottom cuz that is where my weighted bar
that I popped off in the beginning is
going to go and I'm not placing one at
the top because that is where the frame
for the whole lines is going to go so
when you're figuring out the spacing be
sure to subtract 2 in from the top of
your length and 2 in from the bottom of
your length cuz that length needs to be
reserved for the top bar in the bottom
bar and then the rest of the space is
what you have to work with when deciding
how far apart to space your slats so
then the next step is to apply them with
this tape so I'm not going to do that on
camera cuz it's already going on the
other side but I wanted to bring up a
very important point do not tape
anywhere near the holes when you're
placing this down because of the fact
that if you get any sort of stickiness
or residue near the holes that's going
to stop the vertical line from sliding
up and down the slats properly so so be
sure when you're cutting this to cut a
strip from about here to here and then
from about here all the way down to the
next hole because that way you will have
avoided the holes entirely and the
adhesive won't get anywhere near the
area where the line is supposed to Glide
freely as you lift it and lower it so
that's really important um you only need
one strip per slat but if you want you
can do two for safe measure
um be sure when you put your tape
down that you actually rub it in real
good when you first apply it to your
Upholstery and then the same thing when
you put your slack down on the tape
press and put pressure follow the
instructions on the thing but I'm pretty
sure that um it says to put pressure but
just wanted to highlight that that way
you know you've got a really good
contact between the tape and the
Upholstery and the tape and the
slat so this is what your Project's
going to look like once you get
everything laid out so in actuality I
had five slots here um on the top is the
bar with the mechanism with the pulie at
the bottom is the weighted bar okay so I
am getting ready to attach the um bar
the top bar with the mechanism on the
inside when I do that first I want to
make sure that it's lined up properly so
that way we're not off kilter so let's
see here
good
there
and good there now that I have the um
alignment proper I'm going to roll it
over make sure none of the line is
anywhere near the edge because I'm going
to apply my first layer of the fabric
fuse
tape so here I
go
[Music]
okay so the top bar has been applied
with the fabric fuse tape pretty well um
I put some pressure just to ensure that
um it was stuck pretty well okay so now
I'm going to do the same thing again but
this time on the inside you can use hot
glue too if you want but the point is
you want a neat folded Edge right there
and
um you know you got to get that so that
way when you see it at the top of the
window that it's not all
wonky all right so that top Rim is on
there real good this is what it's going
to look like from the front so now my
next step is to go ahead and take my
vertical lines and thread them through
all of the slats to reach the
bottom um so I'll do that
[Music]
next
[Music]
okay so for the purpose of this project
I'm actually using the weighted bar from
the original project that I did to show
you um because I feel like this is what
you're likelier to encounter if you go
out and you buy a brand new set of
blinds so basically it is the width of
the project um and at the bottom of
these things excuse the residue from the
fabric tape you will find what looks
like this this is the initial thing that
you're going to cut to lease the
weighted bar in the beginning as well as
the slats so they going to be like a
line that comes out through this hole
you're going to snap
that pop this thing out and then you
have that this is much easier and much
more likely what you're going to
encounter excuse my bandaid I stabbed
myself earlier um but basically I wanted
to show you for the purpose since this
will be likelier what you will see when
you work on
this okay so everything has been
threaded through and now I'm at the base
bar or what we call the weighted bar do
not tape this to the project yet because
you have to be able to access the top
and the bottom um so what you're going
to do is
thread the vertical lines through these
holes and then you're going to thread it
through this little pop pop on thing it
goes in and out like a little pop on
excuse my Band-Aid sorry not staining
put um and then once you have that knot
tied and this pop back on on all three
you can go ahead and glue the weighted
bar to the fabric so I'm going to do
that so I just wanted to demonstrate how
I chose to thread this weighted bar
first I went through from the top into
the bottom
and then I took my
little plastic piece like this and I
threaded it through the top or
the this side towards this side if that
makes any sense so there it is into this
side and so now what I'm going to do is
flip it back
around place this through the oh
sorry place this through the
hole and out the top
[Music]
and then I can go ahead and plug this so
before I plug it I don't want to have a
lot of excess on here because I need
that line for the other side so I am
going to just kind of pull on
this until I'm left with just little bit
of excess line on this
side that way I'm not wasting it
um
see that's about
right now I'm going to go ahead and plug
it so that's in there really nice and
tight but just as an extra precaution
I'm going to go ahead and tie this
together with this as it so I have um
everything tied and snapped into place
and then what I did was I rotated it up
from the edge so that I would have the
clearance that I needed for for the
bottom tape to go in and then of course
I made sure that everything was um
aligned with the top the best that it
could it's not going to ever be perfect
or exact but um you know it is what it
is never ever cut excess off of here if
there's excess line once you tie it pull
back up here cuz it's going to go out to
the um the pulley the handle pulley so
now I'm going to go ahead and apply the
tape to the bottom to reattach it to
well to attach it to the bottom of the
weighted
[Music]
bar
all right so the weighted bar is nice
and taped um and now this is the point
where you are going to go and fold over
those sides so the excess on both sides
you're going to fold over and you're
going to tape down um since mine's
already done I'm just going to tape this
little Edge right here and this little
Edge right here and then after that it
will be time to straighten out the lines
and then go in and apply the backing
liner so that's next okay so once you've
pulled your lines taunt where the fabric
is still flat it's not punched up but
everything is there's no excess you're
going to take your lines in your hand
you should be three of them cut them to
length where they're all
matching and then what you're going to
do is cut a little
slit in the front of your
fabric for the um I'm sorry into the
front of your fabric for the these lines
to go out into so I already have one
somewhere oh there it is okay so it's
itty bitty
one may you know want to reinforce the
edges with like something to prevent it
from fraying if you have a very Fray
type material but for me it doesn't
really unravel very easy I'm going to
feed these
three through that hole and pull it out
the other side and then I'm going to
attach like a little knob and so this is
what it looks like after I pull it
through the hole um if you have darker
fabric it may be a good idea to go and
get a black or dark brown set of blinds
because they will also come with dark or
black um lines which will not show up so
brightly against this or you could kind
of take this and dye it or something
like that I'm not going to worry about
it too much there's white in the room
that I'm putting this in um so it's to
me not a very big deal but if you're
really detail oriented you may want to
think about that so now I'm going to
take something and attach it to the ends
of these to prevent them from coming
apart and from sliding up through the
mechanism so this little thing came with
my blinds the first set that I had and
basically it's just two things that kind
of snap together and hold the um string
on the inside to make like a neat little
end but first you're going to need to
tie the three things
together into a
knot okay so now it's on the knot so
then I'm going to take this
knot and slide it underneath this
stopper and make sure I thread all three
strings through and now I can close this
thing up so I got to cut this excess so
the excess string at the bottom of that
knot is cut off and now that it's all
thread through this and this part I can
go ahead and close up
shop don't know if I can do it one
handed yep I did it all right so it's
snapped I'm going to also kind of glue
it or tape it to reinforce that
seal so that way it doesn't come
apart and I have a nice and clean pool
line with a little thma Bob at the end
of it pool line
container all right so now I have to put
the back of fabric on next and I'm going
to again use the same noo method of the
fabric fuse tape I'm just going to fuse
it to the edges as close to the edges as
I can that way it gives it a nice and
clean appear appearance and um I'll just
tape it as I
go okay so everything is on the floor
and prepped for the backing material to
be placed on it and again this is a noo
project so I've got my fabric Fusion
tape and I am going to place strips of
tape along the perimeter as well as
inside those
slats and the main thing I need to be
cautious about is avoiding that vertical
line in the center and on the edges you
don't want anything to impede the flow
of that line
[Music]
oh gosh no no no no no no no no no don't
walk oh you're going to mess it up
Hamilton get off of
it okay so I'm up here in my office and
I wanted to show you what I'm doing
before I do it so the original blinds
Hardware is still hanging it does not
have to come down if you already have
blinds installed in the window um here
mine are drilled into the sides there's
a center support since it's a double
window or greater you'll want more
supports than just the edges and those
were just screwed into the wood on the
sides there and all you're going to do
is just slide it in um to those slots
and then when it's in you're going to
close this um and sometimes you have to
take like a mallet or Hammer to get it
closed all the way but you don't want to
avoid um closing that all the way
because if you're pulling on it when
you're lifting the shade this can open
up and it can come down and hit you in
the face I wouldn't know that from
personal experience or anything but uh
anyway yeah you want to be careful for
that so I'm about to put it up and show
you next okay this is the shade in
upward position I'm going to keep
manipulating these folds to go as I want
them to and into time they'll straighten
out and look better um but you just kind
of have to work with it when you have
thicker upholster like I'm using in this
instance and here it is in the downward
position and you just operate it using
the pull cord like you do with any old
lines and it works great um and this is
just the quickest and cheapest way to
get your own Roman shade in your home
without having to study a ton of
tutorials and take sewing lessons so I
hope you enjoyed this and I will see you
next time
[Music]
goodbye