Window Shade

So remember when I posted a picture of the broken blinds in my guest room? Well, I made a very cheap but practical shade for it since then. I didn't make anything to fancy because I knew my sister would be coming to stay with us for a while and she would need something, but I didnt want to make a commitment until I knew EXACTLY what I wanted. So this will do for now.

                                                         broken, sad!



I got most of the steps from this site because she gave really good, clear steps and it was the easiest one I found. I didn't post as many instructions as she did so if you really want to make this, I recommend going to her site. (thats ok, right?)





Here is how it went up!

                          cut the blinds and strings off and used only the headrail.

found this remnant piece, but cut and sewed it so the zig zags were going up and down instead of left and right.

added a white border to the sides and bottom

                                               

hot glued it to the top of the blind headrail, then added velcro to the front to make sure it laid flat.

I keep all the extra buttons that come on shirts and I have alot(!!) so I put them to good use by sewing them to the shade, two at the top, two in the middle and two on the bottom.

                                                 on the side facing the room.

the buttons were in the front, attached to the ribbons on the back. these ribbons are for hanging on to the hook on either side of the window frame. The top ribbon was the shortest, the middle ribbon twice the length, and the bottom ribbon the longest.




So then you take the ribbons and just put them in the hooks that are in the window frame. It is supposed to have 3 pleats but liked the way it hung better by only putting the 2 bottom ribbons in the hooks which made 2 pleats. I don't have a picture with them hanging just flat. I really want to post this but maybe I will add one later.

So what made this really easy was that I kept the blind headrail, put the fabric on it and just popped it back into the end brackets! I had the buttons and ribbon and bought the remnant piece for $3.00! Now that's a pretty good example of un-commitment.