Pinterest Tutorial: Make Roman Shades from Mini Blinds

I am in love- Fact. This is an awesome tutorial- Fact. This was so easy that I want to buy tons more fabric and mini blinds to do all the windows in my house- Undeniable Fact.

This tutorial I found on Pinterest is quick, fun and easy. I am nearly jumping for joy on how fun, easy and quick it is. I expected it to be all of these things but not this much so. Enough embellishment, let's get down to business.

First, I went to a mega store and purchased the cheapest mini blind I could find to fit my window. I did this on principle to see if it would really work and just how little I could get away on spending on a tutorial I wasn't 100% convinced would pan out. Next I perused Fabric.com Home Dec Fabric and found the perfect fabric for my cornflower blue bathroom (thinking about painting it so I wanted a neutral). I wanted a neutral, also, so light would come through. This is the only window in the bathroom so I didn't want to darken it with a dark pattern. I choose a geometric to branch out of my comfort zone of florals and to compromise with my husband (long time anti-floral voter). I found out later that geometrics make it very easy to make sure your lines are straight. My window was 32 in. wide by 60 in. long so I ordered up 2 yds of Carver Lattice Sand.

I followed the instructions almost to the letter but because my window was a different size I went with 4 pleats 16 in. apart (this is 3 blinds plus the bottom slat). I really like the dramatic effect of less pleats and think it works well for our long window. I also used some Steam a Seam 2 for the side seams. I REALLY considered sewing these seams but I also really wanted to see how well this tutorial worked out so I decided to not deviate too far. I did however, hot glue all the blinds and slat down instead of using fabric glue for several reasons: I didn't see why to use one over the other, hot gluing seemed faster, I didn't have any beer bottles, I was out of fabric glue (this was the determining factor). This worked very well and I recommend it but arm yourself with an extension cord since most glue guns are not made to range as far as this project called for.  

Though I have only had my Mini-Blind-to-Roman-Shade up for a few days, it looks great and I mean great! It works well and it was such a pleasure to put together. I hate and I mean hate making roman shades because they are so time consuming and tedious. I love their look but I had ruled them out because they were too much given my limited time. This tutorial has reunited me with the look I love with a time commitment I can welcome! Thank you 365 days 2 simplicity!