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How to make roman blinds step by step pictures

 

How to make roman blinds

Times ago, I made blinds for the kid’s bedroom, and now I just hanged the kitchen ones. I like roman shades, they look modern and add a nice finished touch to any room.

Sewing your own blinds is much easier than you may think. The two main reasons why I like to sew my curtains is that it’s definitely the best way to save money and still have a custom design by choosing the fabric and adding some funny details, for example in my son bedroom I glued some little car buttons on the edge of the blind. I found a great useful guide you can read before starting sewing curtains.

For a cost-friendly project, you can also make your own curtain rods, see some inspiration in my DIY curtain rods post.

[ THIS POST PROBABLY CONTAINS AFFILIATES LINKS, OUR FULL DISCLOSURE POLICY IS REALLY BORING, BUT YOU CAN READ IT HERE ]

Today I will explain how you can sew your roman blinds. I make them removable, which means you can easily take them off to wash them. I will suggest you wash the fabric before starting cutting and sewing, so your blinds won’t shrink when you wash them.  It a quite long tutorial, I hope to provide clear explanations. Don’t hesitate to leave a comment if you have any doubt.

RELATED: How to make relaxed roman shades

RELATED: DIY curtain rods

How to make roman blinds

Materials you will need:

To make your DIY easier, you can use this DIY Roman shade hardware kit (plus pulleys look fancier than eyescrews:)

measure to make roman blinds 

The first step, take the measurements. Definite the finish blind dimension (red square), think to leave more fabric on the top part, you need some space to fold the blind above the window. You need to add 1 inch on each side for the seams, and you need to add extra high for each dowel you will use in your blind (green lines).

Example: the finished blind need to be 50 inches wide x 40 inches high. Adding the seams, the fabric dimensions must be 52 inches x 42 inches. You need to add 2 inches for each dowel, in this case, 6 dowels: 2 inches x 6 = 12 inches to add on the height. So the fabric piece to cut is 52 inches x 54 inches.

The number of dowels you will need will depend on the window dimension. I suggest placing one every 6-10 inches. Calculate to place them in a uniform manner along the entire height.

sew roman blinds

 

velco to hold roman blinds

Take the fabric, fold the vertical edges and sew them.
Fold the top edge and sew a piece of velcro all along. This will allow you to take off the blind if you want to wash it.

making folds for roman blinds

Take a ruler and trace the lines to make the fold where the dowels are gonna be slide in.

For this blind, we place a dowel every 6 inches ( = your measure on the pic). Starting from the top (just under the velcro), take the measure + 3 inches. It this case 6 in. + 3in.= 9 inches. Trace a line at 9 inches, and a second one, parallel,  at 2 inches distance. 

Leave 6 in. (= your measure) and trace a line, and the second one at 2 in. And so on until the bottom edge.

The measures must fall just on the edge, if it is not, start again by modifying the distance between each dowel fold (= your measure)

sewing folds for roman blinds

Fold the blind through the inside following the lines, both lines must be on top of each other. Pin and sew on the line.

back of diy roman blinds

Repeat to make all the folds. To make the bottom fold, where you will slide the last dowel, you just need to fold the edge. When all the folds are made, iron your blind.

sewing rings on roman blinds

Hand stitches rings on each fold, at more or less 1 inch from the edge. Do it on both sides.

screw trim to hold roman blinds

Time to hang the blind on the wall. Screw the 1×2 wood trim on top of the window. I place it at 7 inches above the window, but it will depend on your folds dimensions. Screw 2 eye screw (hook) on the lower part of the wooden trim. I make 2 blinds, so in this case, I will need 4 eye screws (2 for each blind).

screwing hooks to hold roman blinds

If you like too, you can paint the wood to match your wall color. Glue velcro on the upper part of the plank. You can use adhesive velcro, or a glue gun to fix it.

No need to mess up with glue if you use strong velcro adhesive tape to hold the blind.

Sliding dowels into the blinds

Attach you blinds on the plank, just put both velcro sides ( the blind one and the plank one) on top of each other and press. Ensures that the shades are straight, the good thing is you can easily remove them if needed. Cut the 1/2 wooden dowels, 1 inch smaller than the blind width, sand the edges and slide them into each fold.

passing the rope to open roman blinds

Almost done, to open and close the blinds, you have to pass 2 pieces of rope into the rings and eye screws.

First rope (green line on the pic): start with a knot, pass the rope into each ring, and both eye screws (green line on the pic).

Second rope (red line): make a knot with the lower ring, pass into each ring, and one eye screw. Pass the rope into the second eye screw and joint both rope pieces, adjust the length. Both ropes should be slightly tense so that the blind opens and closes right, finish with a knot.

back of roman blinds

diy wall hook for roman blinds

To attach the rope, and leave the blind open, fix a rope cleat on the window side. For some reason, I couldn’t find them at my hardware store, so I made one in wood and paint it white.

DIY roman blinds

And done! I hope it will help you to sew your own blind. For my kid’s bedroom, I made blinds lined with blackout fabric. You can see some pics of the blinds in my son’s bedroom in the post talking about How to build a headboard with a few planks. If you look closely you will see the little car buttons (because he likes cars and not trees).

RELATED: How to make relaxed roman shades

RELATED: DIY curtain rods

How to sew roman blinds

Looking for more sewing ideas?

You will find all the tutorials featured in this video on my Best off-page.

DIY Homemade roman blinds

Sewing roman blinds

I made a self-watering planter with a plastic bottle and use the leftover fabric from my blinds to cover it. It’s the good thing about sewing, you can match stuff. An something else I made on this pic is the DIY key holder box on the right. Yes, we have that many keys that we need an all box to keep them.

Want to remember it? Save this Roman Blinds Sewing Tutorial in your favorite Pinterest board.

Roman blinds sewing tutorial

You may also like these projects:

How to make Relaxed Roman Shades - DIY tutorial

color block origami pillow

Amaryllis

Shelly

Tuesday 21st of June 2022

I can't nail anything to the wall so I want to put them on a curtain rod. It says these have a rod pocket, so I'm confused about how they install.

LunasVioletas

Monday 11th of January 2021

I made them!!! πŸ€—πŸ€—πŸ€— just finished them. Now next step is to install them. They are very easy to make.

And the explanation of the measures was the best, and also easy!!!

Thankx a lot for all the training.

amaryllis

Friday 15th of January 2021

I'm so glad my easy tutorial helps you to sew your blinds. Enjoy!

Caroline

Thursday 15th of October 2020

Hi ! In the beginning of your post you included a link for a DIY Roman Shade hardware set. Have you ever installed pulleys with the rope to help guide the shade when opening and closing? I wonder if it would make for a smoother opening and closing of the curtain? I ask because I plan to make for my daughter's room and anticipate opening/ closing the blinds multiple times a day ,so I'd like the system to be durable... any thoughts? Thanks!

amaryllis

Sunday 18th of October 2020

Hi Caroline, I never installed the pulleys set but I think it's worth it if you plan to open and close the blinds often. I made all the blinds for my kid's bedrooms and I had to change the rope because it was worn (I had to change it after 3 or 4 years of use...I can't remember exactly). Let me know your thought if you decide to give a try with the pulleys.

Cari

Tuesday 4th of August 2020

Thank you for this tutorial! I needed something to cover the window in my metal basement door. This worked great! I used sticky Velcro to attach the Roman blind to the door and then used two pulls, one on each side, with a command hook that I could attach the pulls to when it’s open. That helped me not have to put holes in my metal door. So thank you!

amaryllis

Tuesday 4th of August 2020

Hello Cari, Thanks for your message. I'm glad my tutorial helps you sew a blind that works for your door.

Sandra

Friday 3rd of April 2020

This is awesome. I think I'll try making them for my bedroom window. Thank you for the easy to follow tutorial. Very detailed and very well done.