Roman Shades for my Kitchen Window

I have to say Roman Shades are my favourite window treatment.  I just love them.  I have them in my bathroom and downstairs office.  I recently tried a different approach for my kitchen window.  I loved how it turned out. There are allot of tutorials on Pinterest and other blogs making roman shades with Walmart mini blinds.   I thought I would give it a try.  This is the way my kitchen window looked like...



Kitchen in Progress

We have been doing some small changes to our kitchen lately.  Where the shelves are now used to be a microwave cabinet, we have moved  the microwave to above the stove.  Hopefully, someday we will get the trim back on and maybe I will have the courage to paint my kitchen cabinets. 

There are many designs to choose from when it comes to Roman Shades here are some examples 

 I chose the Flat option for my kitchen window but I have done the Knife option in my bathroom and office.  I love the modern look to it. 

I started with some left over material from my living room curtains, a Walmart mini blind, (I made sure the mini blind was the right width for my window or close to it), my sewing machine,  thread and scissors.

Step #1:  I'm sorry I don't have photos for this, but first I started by cutting the string that holds the white plastic slates to the blind (make sure you don't cut the main string that pulls the blind up).

One thing you need to decide with a roman shades is if you want the blind to go between the wood trim or outside of the window frame.  Since part of the trim around my window wasn't there I needed to go outside the window frame.

Step 2:  Measure the width of the window. To the outside window frame was 44".    I also wanted a lining in my roman shade but this is optional . I wanted to be able to block out a bit of the sun, so I picked up some lining at the local fabric store.  With a 1/2" seam allowance on both sides I cut the material 46" wide and the lining 43" wide.  

Step 3:  Sew along both right and left edges by 1/2 Inch. Wrong side to wrong side.

Step 4:  After sewing both edges, flip the material so the good side is on the outside and after some ironing you should get something that looks like this. 

Step 5:  Then fold the top of the roman shade by a 1 inch and sew across.  Fold the  bottom by 2 inches and sew.  I found it easier to  pin and iron the seams before I sewed.  It made it easier when sewing to make sure it stayed in place.

Step 6:  Then take the mini blind slats and attached them to the back of the blind,  7 inches apart, with thread and a needle.  Make sure you attached to both the lining and the curtain material.   If not, the curtain material may not fold nice when you get it up. 

Step 7:  Attach the top and bottom of the mini blind with a hot glue gun. Just make sure to weave the string through the slates and attached it to the bottom the same way we detached it before hot gluing.   



Can you see the slats?

Erin trying to get in the photo

This is what we ended up with once we got them hung..

Sorry it was late at night when I took the photos.

How do they look?