I'm Blind ... I'm Roman Blind!

Ok, ok, I'm not actually blind .... but I did make a Roman blind this weekend for my spare bedroom and I'm rather proud of my efforts - woohoo! The back 2 bedrooms face east and always get the morning sun ... which makes them very hot in the summer, so this should help!

It all started when I found some cute (read cheap) cotton canvas like material in the big box W store. Hey, that would work fantastic as a liner for the wicker carryall I have that has lost it's straps and I now want to use for the summer with my little blue cart I drag to work everyday. So I bought a bunch - it was on sale - I don't remember how much, probably 2 meters, and took it home. After rediscovering the shopping bag a few days/weeks later, I took a good second look and thought - hey, this would make a fabulous Roman blind ... so now you see how my mind works .... and why so many of my projects morph into other things ....

fabric pre cutting & sewing

Well, as if I didn't have enough to do this weekend .... like have brunch with mother, get haircut, grocery shop for the month, banking for the month, finish seeding the dead grass areas on the front lawn, finish spring cleaning the house, laundry, work Saturday, re-pot the plants I've been rooting for the last 6 weeks, fertilize plants @ work and top up with soil, respond to those 2 purple charm square chain letters (PLEASE stop sending me chain letters), play with the ever so patient (thank god the kitties still love me!) Iris and Simone, load/unload the dishwasher, finish that library book that's overdue, get to the 3 week old ironing, etc., etc., etc. .

None-the-less I merrily went about creating a Roman blind for the spare bedroom. Now that it's completed I realize there are probably much easier methods to create the same effect, but then again, how do you know that until you've made the first one ?
So, after sewing on the horizontal (yes, I know, usually the tape is sewn on vertically, but not this tape, no... that would be too normal...), inserting the 5 wooden dowels, discovering the dowels were 1/2 " too long, breaking off that darn 1/2" 5 times, deciding I had just enough left-over beige piano trim that would look just lovely on this blind ...Blind on sewing counter with piano trim pinned

Then determining how to attach the darn thing to the window, then finding the board for the header, sawing it to fit, 3 times - Yes, I know, measure twice, cut once ... but I didn't account for the extra space needed for the 2 L brackets, then I forgot to account for the screw heads holding the L brackets in place (planning beforehand was never my strong suit, I'm much too spontaneous for that ... or is it AAAD Age Activated Attention Deficit), and finally, YES finally getting it all in place!

Phew! I'm exhausted, but damn - my new Roman blind looks good!

finished product!

Too bad I don't have anymore windows where I can use another blind!

TTYL