Privacy Please! - Roman Shades

I came across this amazing idea on pintrest.com to create roman shades from existing blinds. Which is PERFECT because my crazy dog just recently found his way into our bay window while we were away and destroyed our blinds. Not to mention, our bay window is at the front of our house...for the whole neighborhood to see...lets just say I was ready to give the darn dog away! 

Anyway, the tutorial I basically followed can be found here: http://365days2simplicity.blogspot.com/2011/04/easy-no-sew-roman-shades.html

She did an awesome job posting pictures and step by step instructions. Thanks to my awesome husband, he found out an easier way to remove the "ladder" portion of the blinds instead of cutting between each slat one by one....which by the way I did on one of the three blinds & it took FOREVER. Anyway, what he did was cut the ladder part connected to the top and the part connected to the bottom, then removed the bottom piece (which you have to do anyway) and the ladder string slid right off...as well as the slats. 

Also, I followed her instructions and did "no-sew" by using the iron hem stuff you can buy in the stores. Well let me just say....if I make these again, I will just take the extra effort and just sew the hems. The iron hem glue kept sticking to my fingers or breaking into little pieces. I'm sure it was just me, so give it a try... but don't blame me when you get flustered! 

I looked online to figure out what type of material to use. Most  websites said to use "home decor" fabric, which is fine and dandy......if you want to spend $12-$20 a yard! I had to buy 5 yards of fabric for 3 windows & was not trying to spend $100 on shades! So I settled with "quilting" fabric....which has A LOT of variety....making it easier to find a fabric to suite your room and only cost $5-$7 a yard. It may fade over time, but it only cost me $25 for fabric, so that's a risk I can afford. (side note: if you plan on making these, or anything for that matter, I highly suggest going to Joannfabrics.com and signing up for their mailing list. I signed up last week and have already gotten 2 20% off entire purchase coupons. Hey! Any little bit helps!)

Bottom line, I spent a total of $27 (with the 20% coupon and since I already had the blinds) and got these AWESOME roman shades. It took about 2 hours. Honestly, the first hour was pretty much spent on just the first window....the 2nd and 3rd took less time. It was quite simple as long as you know how to measure, iron, cut & glue.