Final result – love it! – My fingers hurt LOL
Every time you move into a new house you have to consider what to do about the windows – unless you like the idea of living in a goldfish bowl you have to put up some sort of blinds or curtains for privacy – both for you and your neighbors sake!
In our new house we don’t have neighbors right on top of us any more – one of the benefits of living on acreage but you still need some window treatments. Luckily the previous homeowner went with Roman shades, which I love – timeless style.
Original blinds – cream tone on tone jacquard – not my style
The dining room blinds can be seen from pretty much everywhere in the main living area. I had always planned to cover them up with a nice printed grey and white fabric to match the rest of the ling room decor but – lets face it – it was a daunting project. I knew it would take a lot of effort so I kept putting it off However once the giant blank wall was banished, the cream blinds started to look dingy and really out of place.
new fabric or $20 curtain panel – Yum!
I needed 95″ of fabric for each blind – there were 4 of them depending on the width of fabric I bought, I was looking at anywhere between 6 -12 yards. Most of the fabrics I liked where priced between $30 -60 a yard – Yikes!
use a stitch ripper to open up hem allowance top and bottom
Instead, I started looking at curtain panels and as luck would have it I found the perfect thing at Target for only $20 a panel. They were only 84 inches long and I really would have preferred 95 inches – but since I didn’t want to pay an extra $10 per panel and have to wait and order them online I figured that the hem allowance top and bottom would probably be close enough 🙂
Two panels cut each in half lengthwise was just enough to cover the four blinds. Forty bucks was so much better than closer to $500 at the fabric store!
My big plan was to use iron on fusing tape to make it quick and easy since I was never going to be able to get these blinds and the attached hardware through the sewing machine…. Yeah well best laid plans of mice and men etc
back of blinds – the stings are held on with little clips that you should pop off, then reattach
I took down the blinds and laid each one flat – if you can pop off the strings so much the better. I laid a line of fusing tape along each crease or pleat and all around the outside edge. After ironing the new fabric, I rolled it out carefully in place on top of the old blind and fusing tape. I pinned on either end of each pleat to stop things shifting. Then I steam ironed like crazy 🙂
Once clips are popped off blinds will lay completely flat. Adding fusing tape and new fabric
Although the tape did a reasonable job I just didn’t trust the bond to hold around the edges and I didn’t want my new pretty fabric to peel off like banana skins after baking in the Florida sun so reluctantly I hand stitched each outer edge of the blinds – just to provide the extra strength and my own peace of mind. Of course that meant it took forever and swallowed my weekend whole. Oh well – if it’s worth doing, its worth doing right.
One done – looks much better
The final touch was using some scrap grey fabric to cover the little valances at the top of each blind. Despite achy crampy fingers after all that hand stitching, I am really pleased with the end result. A whole new look for those tired blinds for only $40
Once I recover from the hand sewing induced carpal tunnel, I will do the same to the blinds in my office 🙂
spinningpixels 