No Sew Roman Shades

 UPDATE 2: HERE is the link to another post I did answering more questions and such!

UPDATE: I NEVER would have thought this post would drive so much blog traffic, pinning, and emails!  This little ole' blog of mine never would have guessed one post would generate almost 20,000 views (and it grows daily!!!).  I have decided to do an update with the common questions I have been asked. I have also tried to contact some of you that have commented to answer your questions and can't figure out your emails addresses. I'm sorry! I hope this helps!

1) How are these attached to the door? This is a metal door, so my husband drilled the top directly into our door with the hardware that came with the blinds. 
2) Do they move a lot when you open and close the door? No! The actually don't move at all. For the majority of the day, I leave them pulled up so when my littles go in and out into our backyard, they won't get in the way.   
3) Are these lined or could they be lined? Mine are not lined, but I do think you could easily line them. I have seen a tutorial for curtains where you use an inexpensive white flat sheet as a liner and it is suppose to work well. I plan on trying this out for the curtains I am making for the other windows in this room, so we will see how it goes! When you cut your fabric, just cut the sheet at the same time. Maybe use fabric glue to attach the 2 pieces together?
4) How did you know how much fabric to buy? I measured my window and then added about 2 inches per side and to the top and bottom to allow for it to be folded over when glued. 
5) Could you make these double sided so they look better from the outside? I really don't know. I think it would be really hard to make that work, but if you try and figure it out, let me know!  

Please feel free to email me at amytippens@gmail.com with anything else I may not have covered.







So we have a pretty big, bright living room/dining room combo with 2 large windows and these great french doors that lead out to our patio and backyard. The doors get a lot of afternoon sun and they had began to yellow and fade our oh-so-pretty white washed hardwood floors. Yikes! Not good. So after living in our house for 9 months now, I finally got around to committing to a fabric to do some window treatments. I am usually not afraid of going with my gut when it comes to decorating but for some reason picking fabric for this room was making me break into a sweat and get the shakes and I just couldn't ever decide. Thanks to a pretty great sale at a locally owned fabric store...ALL fabric $9.99 a yard...I ended up going with an Ikat print in blues, tans, and creams. What? You mean me? Chosing THOSE colors? Never. Haha. And at that price I truly could not pass it up because this fabric was usually $20 a yard.

I had seen a couple of blogs with tutorials on No Sew Roman Shades, specifically THIS one and THIS one and thought that would be something I could do and it would help the budget we have going on right now for adoption expenses. So one night when my kiddos were sound asleep, I gathered my supplies and went to work. This is my first tutorial so it isn't as conclusive as it could be. Please email me with any questions if there are any parts that are confusing. :)

Here are the supplies you will need...

STEP ONE...

STEP TWO...

STEP THREE...

And pull it all the way off. This happens very easily once you have cut the string all the way to the top. I had to cut the ladder string 3 times, one on each side and one down the middle. 

STEP FOUR...

You will need to decide how often you want your shade to fold. After looking at the other blog posts that did this project, I decided to have 8 folds, so...

And if you are super craftastic come up with a cool project to do with the leftover slates because you will have A LOT of them. Otherwise do what I did and let them entertain your child the next day for 30 minutes while you do laundry or unload the dishwasher or check Facebook.

Now you are ready for your fabric.

Let me preface this part by saying it took me FOREVER to figure out the measurements for cutting my fabric. I know I had to take remedial math not once, but twice in college so things like this are not my strong suit but remember that I had a whole lot of fabric on a roll! I had enough to not only do this project but also enough to make 4 curtain panels for my windows too. I had to cut my fabric in half so that I could easily make the shades for both doors. Most of you are probably better at inches and yards and all of that stuff so I am sure you won't have a problem with it like I did.

STEP FIVE...

Time to start gluing! I used fabric glue for the slats and most of the ends, but with the bottom piece I had to use the hot glue to make it fold and look right.

STEP SIX...

Allow the glue to dry. I couldn't wait so I probably hung then sooner than I should, but give it at least 30 minutes. Then follow the hanging instructions. We had to rig ours a little because they were going on a door and not a window frame. I did this project in 2 nights. I did one side one night and the other side the next. This made it much more manageable and by the second time, it took MUCH less time. Probably 45 minutes start to finish.

Then take a picture of it and text it to your girl friends and your mom and admire your handiwork! They will want to know your secret to some great looking, budget-friendly curtains that if custom made would have cost a small fortune, not the $30 you paid to do these.

I would love to know if you try this project! And if you have any questions, shoot me an email amytippens@gmail.com and I will do my best to answer it.