Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

Blog Contributor, Crafty Mom and Writer, Gillian, from the Blog “Dried Figs and Wooden Spools”.

When my son was a baby he absolutely could not sleep unless the room was totally dark. The room darkening shades on the market were well out of my budget so I resorted to the use of heavy quilts thumb-tacked over the windows which was effective, but not the most attractive looking solution. Over the years I’ve made all sorts of window treatments for his room and his sisters in the various houses we’ve lived in. Most of them have been far better looking than the old blanket over the window set up, but none were quite as effective.

We have, once again moved into a new house and while room darkening is not as crucial as it once was, it was still important when I set out to decorate the kids new (shared) room. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money because, let’s face it, they’re kids, they like to destroy things. I especially did not want curtains since my daughter has recently become obsessed with swinging from things Indiana Jones style and like many parents, I have a mortal dread of the strings that go along with Roman shades and mini blinds. I  also wanted an attractive, custom look. The solution?

Roller Shades!

Roller shades are about as economical as you can get when it comes to window treatments. The thinner, sun filtering variety ran about $3 at our local Home Improvement store and the thicker, room darkening ones were only slightly more. The problem is, they’re ugly. The white vinyl surface looks more like a shower curtain liner than something you would hang on a window. The saving grace of these is that they are eminently customizable. You can wallpaper them, you can tear the vinyl off and attach heavy fabric to the roller or, if your like me,  you can cover them with leftover sheeting fabric.

Now I know I’m not the only one whose linen cupboard is full of flat sheets that the kids don’t ever use. You know how it goes. You make up the bed with freshly laundered sheets, tuck them in and by the time you come back kiss them goodnight, the flat sheet is either a) crumpled up at the foot of the bed and doing an excellent impression of a strange beast hiding under the covers or b) on floor getting all dirty again. So into the cupboard they go, there to languish and not fade in the wash like the fitted sheet until the pain in no way matches. Well, I say put those sheets to good use! Repurpose them into shades!

To make the shades, you first need to carefully measure your window width. Don’t assume that all your windows are the same width, they can vary by a 1/4 of an inch and with roller shades, that 1/4 of and inch matters. For a truely room darkening effect you’ll want to get the style that hangs on the outside of the window frame so that it covers the whole window. Since neither of my children are that picky anymore, I chose to hang mine along the inside of the frame and measured accordingly.

Once the shades have been cut for you at the store, determine how much you will be pulling out. If you plan to pull the shade to it’s full length, you’ll need to cover the entire thing, but if the shade is much longer than the window, just plan of covering as much as you need plus about six inches.Lay your sheet out on a flat surface and spread the shade(s) on top to decide where you want to cut. For this project, I was able to cover three shades from one flat sheet with a little fabric to spare.

Cut the fabric, leaving a little overhang on each side and about 2 inches at the bottom. Take the shade outside and lay it flat on a clean surface and spray the entire thing with a slow setting spray adhesive. The benefit of the slow setting variety is that it actually benefits the sticking power to wait a few minutes before adhering the fabric, which gives you plenty of time to bring it carefully inside and back onto your flat surface. Position the fabric on top of the shade, making sure to leave that two inch overhang at the bottom. I found that the best way to smooth out bubbles was to pull firmly at the sides of the fabric, starting from the bottom and smoothing as I went up. Once the entire surface is covered, spread some tacky glue on the overhang and carefully fold it over, trimming if necessary to create a smooth effect on the reverse side. Trim the excesss from the long sides and hang.

Finished!

Depending on the fabric you used, you may want to dab some fray check along the edges once the shade is hung and then re-trim any stray thread that may have come loose. Once it’s dry you can roll them up to the length you are looking for and stand back and admire your work.

Click here to read more of Gillian’s blog.