Sewing Roman Shades


Check this out – I sewed roman shades! I had one of those ‘I bet I could do that’ moments, and then after reading about it everywhere I could, I just jumped in and started sewing.

This isn’t a tutorial, but I’ll share with you the sources that I learned the most from, and a couple tips that I wish I had known before I started


I used lift cord that came enclosed in a tape that I purchased from Rowley company, mostly because there was a video that gave me a good idea of how to make it form even pleats. I also learned a lot from Vogue Sewing for the Home and the how-to guides found on the Rowley website, although I didn’t follow any of these sources exactly.

This fabric is by Premier Prints. We got it from Fabric.com.


I think the scariest part of making shades is cutting the fabric – because what if you mess up? So I had the friend who I was sewing these for cut the mounting boards in advance exactly to the window width. Then I cut the fabric about 4” wider than the board and used the board to mark where to fold my side hems. That helped me get the exact width that I needed.


I cut the fabric long enough for a generous 6” hem at the bottom, plus about 6” extra at the top so we could adjust each shade to the perfect length when we mounted them.

You can’t see it, but inside the hem (above) I sewed a pocket to hold a 1/2” dowel to weight the bottom of the shade down.

These are simple shades with screw eyes attached to the mounting board that the cords run through. Then the cords are wrapped around a simple figure-8 bracket high on the wall.


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Lesson learned: some things you just have to jump in and make. No one gets good at sewing by buying everything at the store, lol!

ASo, what have you been sewing up this week? Did you make something with one of my free sewing tutorials or patterns? I would love to see! Tag me on Instagram @sewcanshe.

xoxo,


Disclosure: some of my posts contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through one of those links I may receive a small commission, so thank you for supporting SewCanShe when you shop! All of the opinions are my own and I only suggest products that I actually use. 🙂