curtains | Beneath My Heart

No-Sew Faux Roman Shade {by Richella from Imparting Grace}

April 5, 2011

6:00 am

I am so happy to introduce my guest to you today!!

You may have heard me talk about my friend, Richella, from Imparting Grace, on my blog before.

Richella is one of my dearest blog friends. I met her shortly after I started blogging, and we instantly connected. Her precious comments brought me great comfort and encouragement during my mom’s illness and death.

I was so blessed to finally meet Richella in person at Blissdom this past January. She roomed with my sister and I! It is such an amazing feeling when your online friends become your real life friends.

That is Richella in the beautiful teal blouse. Seeing this picture again brings a tear to my eye. I love my blog friends so much and miss them terribly!

(Love you, Chris, Myra, Richella, Sarah, and Rhoda!)

Richella can be summed up in these words: Genuine, Compassionate, and Loving.

And she’s also a lot of fun!

She’s probably going to kill me, but I have to post these pictures of us in the Photo Booth at Blissdom.

She’s my buddy!

Richella’s blog is a treasure to read. If you do not follow her blog, you should. She will bless your heart!

Here are a few of my favorite posts of Richella.

Her New Guest Bedroom:

This next post blew my mind! She used a styrofoam cooler to make this beautiful ottoman. I’m totally serious!! A styrofoam cooler!

I love that her blog contains so many great things…home decor, crafts, English lessons (which I desperately need!), thoughts from her heart, and a whole bunch of spiritual wisdom.

Richella is also a mom of all boys. Three precious red-headed boys to be exact! And one of my very favorite posts of hers is a poem she wrote called, “Thoughts from a Blogging Mother.” It’s a must read if you are a mom and a blogger.

As a side note, I would like to ask all of you to please pray for Richella and her family in the coming week. Her husband, Jack, is having major heart surgery on Tuesday, April 12th, and I know she would covet your prayers. You can read about her husband is a post she just recently wrote, “Hope Matters”.

If you have never met Richella here in blogland, you are in for a treat!

She is beautiful. Her home is beautiful. But most importantly, her heart is beautiful.

So without further ado, here is Richella….

I’m so excited to be here at Traci’s today. I’ve known Traci now for nearly two years–and that’s a long time in blog years! One of my dreams came true when I got to meet Traci and her sister Cyndi at BlissDom in January. In fact, I got to room with them. Please don’t hate me!

Today I’m really glad to share an easy project that I’ve just completed for my kitchen: a no-sew faux Roman shade. (Try saying that three times fast!) First, I’ll show you my old kitchen window treatment:

That’s also a faux Roman shade, and I’m proud to say that I made it by following the wonderful step-by-step instructions from Sarah at Thrifty Decor Chick. If you’re interested in making Roman shades, I highly recommend Sarah’s method. It will give you the look of an authentic Roman shade, and her instructions are easy to follow.

I love my red shade, and I’m going to use it again in the autumn and winter. But I wanted something a little different for spring and summer.

I considered something light-colored, but this is a west-facing window, and I wanted a dark background color to provide good heat-blocking on summer afternoons. So I was tickled when I found this fabric:

This fabric looks cheerful and summery to me. As an added bonus, it’s an outdoor fabric, so it won’t fade. (Note: the fabric is from Not Just Linens in Durham, North Carolina, and it’s called “Dorothy Ebony.”)

I’ve been so busy lately that I didn’t have time even to follow Sarah’s easy tutorial, so I came up with a quick, easy way to make a pretty good copy of a Roman shade. Here are the steps I followed.

Decide on the measurements you need. For this method, you’ll need to end up with a shade that’s the width of the inside of your window. The length of the shade would ideally be the length of your window, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be that long. Simply cut your fabric to the correct width plus an inch on either side and the twice the length you want to end up with. (This is a no-sew method, so you’ll need double the fabric length. If you want to sew a lining fabric to your shade fabric, you’ll just need a single length of fabric and a length of lining.)

Lay your fabric out on a large work surface. You’ve cut your fabric an extra inch wide on each side; now turn the fabric under 1 inch on each side and secure the flaps with fabric glue or with Stitch Witchery. (For my shade, I needed the full width of the fabric plus a little extra, so I simply used glue to secure ribbon to the selvages of my fabric.

Once you have your fabric to the desired width with the sides finished however you like, double the fabric over, right sides together. Glue (or Stitch Witch, or sew if you like) the two cut ends together to create a seam.

Turn the fabric right side out. Now you have a large rectangle of doubled fabric.

And now for the secret tool that makes this shade possible: the tension rod. These rods are adjustable to any length. Measure the inside of your window frame to find the length you need, and adjust the rod using the manufacturer’s directions. (Note: The insides of my window frames are not very deep, so I used an oval rod.)

Insert the rod into one end of your fabric rectangle, like so:

Hang your fabric rectangle in the top of your window frame:

See? My shade isn’t exactly the right length, but I’m only going to use it as a stationary treatment at the top of my window, so it doesn’t matter that it’s not quite long enough.

Take a second tension rod and hang it a few inches lower than your top rod (mine is about 7 inches lower than the top rod), like so:

Now bring your fabric up to double over the second rod.

Now repeat that process with a third tension rod. Here’s how the shade will look under the folds. (Those cup hooks are there from using Sarah’s method to make the red shade.)

You’ll have to fiddle with it to get the folds just the length you like, but it doesn’t take long. And here’s what you’ll have:

A fun, faux Roman shade that’s so quick and easy to create that you may want to make one for each different season!

I’m so grateful to Traci for the chance to meet all of you. I’d love to have you visit me at Imparting Grace!

Thanks for sharing such a beautiful and simple project with us, Richella! You are the best!

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Office Window Do-Over

February 9, 2010

11:26 am

February 9, 2010 By 35 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to make a No Sew Roman Shade for my office.

I saw the project in blogland , and immediately decided to try it. Like…that night.

I used what supplies I already had and made this…

You can read about that project HERE.

I had intended to paint my office first, before making a shade, but I was just too impatient.

I liked the shade, (sort of), but not with my yellow walls.

So I finally painted the walls my favorite color, Khaki Shade by Sherwin Williams.

I forgot to take a picture of the roman shade with my new paint color, but let’s just say, I wasn’t diggin’ it.

The cream-colored shade just didn’t go with the Khaki Shade paint like I hoped it would.

So I got rid of the shade and decided to start over.

I decided to make another shade. Here it is…

My husband got me the “blessings” sign for Christmas. It is a very sentimental word for me because it is the word my mom said over and over when she was sick. She always taught us to count our blessings no matter what our circumstances.

The sign was very big as you can see, and I was having a hard time finding a place for it in my house. But then I held it over my window, and I loved it. If may not be for everyone, but for me, I love seeing that reminder each time I walk into my office.

Here is how I made this curtain…it was sooo easy!

I measured the height and width of the inside of my window frame and then added 1 inch to each measurement. That allows for a 1/2 inch seam on each side as you sew.

I did not use a pattern for this window. I usually use them when making window treatments, but I figured I could do this without one.

I bought some cotton fabric from Hobby Lobby. I got it on sale for about $2.00 a yard. I picked up three yards which cost me a little over $6.00.

Since the material wasn’t very thick, I decided to line the shade with the same cotton material.

I laid the material on my bedroom floor two layers thick.

Then I measured across the material with the width of my window and marked it with a pencil.

My window measured 39 1/2 inches wide, so I marked my material 40 1/2 inches.

Then I drew a line down my material by connecting all of my marks. (I used a yard stick to draw the line.)

Then I cut my material down the line and pinned it together to keep it straight.

I did the same thing down the material to get the length of my shade.

The height of my window measured 37 inches. I added an inch to allow for my 1/2 inch seam allowances which made it 38 inches. Then I added 3 more inches to the total to allow room for the rod pocket. So my total for the length of my shade was 41 inches.