Following on from the wall canvases, and the lampshade, I tackled a bigger project for my son's room...
The Roman Blind. What is a Roman Blind (sometimes called a Roman Shade)? Roman blinds are soft fabric blinds which when raised, gather into pleats or folds.
Roman blinds originated in Italy and have been used as a window dressing for many centuries, hence the name "Roman".
I like them, because I can pull them up and out of the way - and they look neat and tidy.
This one measures about 75 inches, or 1.9m across. It was a little unwieldy to sew at it's full length and final weight on my machine, but I did it!
I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I looked at the other blinds I had in my house and used them as my guide for measuring and sewing it all up.
This is my own printed design from Spoonflower, using their Cotton Poplin. You can see the fabric here. I lined it with a heavy blackout lining which has given it a really substantial feel.
My way of doing it uses no dowels - rather a number of small seams that you sew the cord rings on. I used Heat'n'Bond to secure the sides of the blinds down, and over the lining, before sewing the seam lines across the backs.
Sewed a pocket at the bottom to insert a piece of thin timber. This does two things - it acts as a weight to pull the blind down and it keeps it nice and straight.
Sewed rings on the back, evenly spaced along the seams I had sewn in - about 30cm spacings across.
I covered the ends of the timber I used in scrap fabric before inserting/wrapping them - makes it look nice.
Wrapped my fabric around my top piece of timber, then attached screw eyes to it, through the fabric and into the wood, to thread my blind cord through.
Threaded my blind cord up through each set of rings, and then along through the eyes at the top. Then plaited the remainder for the pull cord.
Then - I got to hang it up. A very satisfying moment!
These photos were taken just after I put it up. The last few remaining wrinkles have all dropped out now.
The room is really starting to come together now...
Next - the pillowcase that you can see in this photo, and yes, there will be a tutorial for it. :)
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