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!.
Lee Dobbins writes for several decorating sites including Bedroom Designs And Decorating .com where you can learn more about making your own blinds.
