Monday, August 20, 2012

Embellished Roller Shades

I am in love with these embellished roller shades I whipped up for my master bathroom. I got my inspiration from I am Momma Hear Me Roar and her craft room shades, but changed the process completely. I'm really pleased with how they turned out and they were super cheap and easy to make, my kind of project!
Here you can see the curtains we had up before in the bathroom. My sweet mother whipped them up for us in about 10 seconds (she's pretty much a sewing goddess: she can make anything out of anything in no time flat) from an extra shower curtain we had. They worked great for 2 years, but it was time for an update!
Before
After
 
Before
After
Materials:
Roller shades from the hardware store. They will cut them for you for free, so make sure you measure before you go.
Some fabric-how much depends on how big of a strip at the bottom you want, and how big your windows are.

Step 1: Measure the width of your cut shade and add 1". That will be the length of your fabric. For the width, you're going to want to decide how thick of an embellishment you want. I wanted mine to be large, about 8", so you'll want to double that and add 1". So my width was 17". So, mine ended up being 17"x26". Cut one for each shade you're fancifying.
Step 2: Fold the fabric in half hotdog style with right sides together. Now sew up the two short ends 1/4" from the edge. Trim the corners.
Step 3: Turn the little sleeve you've made right side out and make sure to poke out the corners with something pointy. Now iron the top edge under 1/4". This is important, so make sure it's a nice crisp edge.
Step 4: Put the plastic rod that came with your shade in it's place at the bottom of the shade. Slip the shade into the pretty sleeve you made. Pin along the top edge and sew in place using a 1/8" seam. Make sure that you get the fabric on the underside as well. Just go nice and slow and you should be just fine!
Step 5: All you have to do now is drill the little brackets in place. It's handy at this point to have a brawny man about, but it's easy enough that you can put your man pants on and do it yourself!
 
Hang it up and admire your work!

1 comment:

  1. I love the way it looks! If I ever have a bathroom window, I'm so doing that!

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