the roman shade project

I've done it. I spent weeks searching for all the material needed to create a roman shade (Fabricville does NOT carry everything you need) and only needed the battens (or dowels). Mr C finally took me to the hardware store after he realized what I needed. Duh me. The roman shade I wanted was for our main bathroom upstairs.

First off, let me tell all of you that I had no clue as to what I was doing. I read the step by step instructions online, I watched the videos on youtube, I saw enough images to make my head spin.. I just headed to my sewing machine and started.

Lucky for me, instead of using black-out material as the backing, I used the existing 'damask thing' that was already hanging on a metal rod in our bathroom. That material was actually a table linen I had gotten at work for almost free and it was the exact measurement of the interior window (I also have a matching cushion pillow!).

The way it was.. Ai Carumba, who saw this but us anyways!

I set everything on the floor and started measuring out (okay okay at times, just by eye). I thought about it for a while and then.. just pinned and started sewing. Here's the thing: I didn't want to have to create the header block to install so I decided to get a larger dowel for the top and bottom (so that when I pulled on the string to bring up the shade, it wouldn't pucker in and collapse to the middle). I wanted to create a rod pocket below that to slip the new curtain rod through..

I had no idea what I was doing.. but it sure looks like I do!

Gluing down the dowels.. Should have created separate rod pockets for each..

Well folks, didn't I go and glue the damn dowel and had a miserable time sewing after that!?! Try putting a 53 inch width material with all kinds of dowels glued to it and running it through the sewing machine. I think I was about 2 feet away from my machine with my foot on the pedal trying to maneuver the whole thing through. It was hilarious! Well, now it's hilarious.. I wasn't laughing last night.

I also didn't understand how some of the crafters use their sewing machine to sew on the rings.. Seriously, how do they get all that fabric plus dowel in?? I just hand-sewed them on. I then pulled apart an old bamboo shade and used the cord for my new roman shade.

In hindsight, I should have measured out each dowel spacing and sewed a separate pocket for each and slipped them in afterwards.

I'm going to be creating a straight valance to finish this off.. as my next project! But I finally have a decent looking window covering in the bathroom and it actually works!

The finished result! Sorry for the horrible lighting. It was pretty late.

It works! 

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