Notes from a novice: roman blinds - final stages

You may remember a few weeks our Retail Buyer, Natalie was working on making her own Roman blinds for her home? Not one to shy away from a challenge, our novice interior designer powered through with her project and we now have a completed update on her progress.

Notes from a Novice: Roman Blinds - Final Stages

So I sat down again this weekend to finish the Roman Blind. All that was left to do was sew the channels for the rods (this will create the folds for all the novices like me!) and set the drawing cords. Then my husband would take over with the ‘man’ part of my task, fixing the header rail to the window recess.

Measuring and fitting the Roman blinds. Clearly my confidence was still high from my great start last week; this would soon take a hit! Sewing the channels was, I found, the most difficult part. This is the time and patience element of the whole project. The trick is to sew straight! I wouldn’t say this was an epic fail for me but my advice is to not get distracted at this point. Take your time; keep the pace of the machine steady so that you can manage the fabric.

I did get a little wobble on the first channel but overall, for my first project, I was happy. The remaining three channels were a definite improvement from the first. The only time I thought I had made a big mistake was when I had stitched the final channel. I turned the blind over to see I had managed to pin a scrap piece of fabric to the front and as a result had stitched it to the blind in my rush to get it finished!

I had visions of me having to undo the stitching, or worse that I had ruined the blind completely! But I stayed calm and managed to trim the fabric and gently pull it from the stitching! I also had to cut down the rods, bottom bar and header rail so that this would fit in the window recess. Don’t let this put you off; I brought a small hack saw for a few pounds and followed the instructions supplied with Roman Blind Kits. It wasn’t as hard to do as I thought it would be! So all in all I feel this has been a great success!

The finished product! The tips I have for this project are:

• Look at the fabric you have chosen carefully. I used Sail Stripe in Mineral. This had a number of different size vertical stripes. If I had started to make the blind from one side I would have had narrow stripes on one edge but on the other edge I would have finished with the wider taupe stripe. This would not have looked balanced in the window.
• Preparation is key, take the time to pin and even tack the seams you are going to put in with the sewing machine. This will lead to a great end result.
• Keep your work area clear! Dispose of any off cuts, threads etc. (I learnt this the hard way!)
• And enjoy it! This is meant to be fun. That slight wobble in the stitching is what makes the project yours.

I hope this has proved that anyone can give sewing a go! I look forward to sharing my latest projects with you. My Mum, Sister, and Auntie already have a raft of ideas they want me to work on with them! From recovering a linen basket to Bunting for my nieces bedroom! As you can see I am going to be busy putting my new found skills to good use. Natalie. So what do you think? Pretty good work for someone has never done anything like this before. We hope to bring you some more 'Notes from a Novice' in the near future, in the mean time, if this has inspired you create your own masterpiece, let us know!