Roman Shades from cheap blinds

Hate your blinds? Love the look of roman shades? Here's how I made roman shades using cheap plastic blinds as a base.

Step 1 To start

First measure your window, then gather the following
Tools & Supplies
- A piece of fabric large enough to cover the window (add an inch on the sides and top and 3 inches to the bottom for hemming)
- Blinds
- Scissors
- Thread
- Needle
- Sewing machine
- sharpie or marking pen of your choice
- Ribbon (optional)
- Hot glue gun

Comments

[sieburth]

I think you can glue velcro to the top slat and to your fabric, then you could remove and wash the fabric when it gets dirty.

This is a great instructable!  Might solve my window blind and fabric horde problems at the same time!

[yeehacmh]

If you pop out the tabs on the bottom you can cut off these extra slats and re-tie the strings. These instructions come with each miniblind.

[dedehmsw]

great idea. I want to do something similar for grand baby's room but need to be able to clean the curtains. Any idea how to attack to just top of plastic blinds (thinking of making a valance) so that they can be washed?

[starshipminivan]

Fantastic idea! I think I'll try machine stitching a button hole for the cords. The fabric cover is not only nicer looking but a thick fabric (or layers of fabric) can add insulation to the windows, lowering energy costs. So it's not only pretty, but practical.

[LinuxH4x0r]

Smart! You can adjust the opaqueness and everything. Great job!

[RSchwark]

Neat. I guess you could just use heavier Fabric if you wanted more light "blockage" right?

[erict]

You could use heavier fabric or add a second layer, but I prefer to simply adjust the slats to modify how much light gets blocked.