craft blogger wannabe

Spring Break...

Could anything really be better than spring break? The weather is great, there is no school, and the best part is...when I go back to work on Monday it's all down hill planning for the end of the year! I truly love my job! And weeks like this help are a huge part of why :)

This week I wanted to tackle a few craft projects that I've been putting off for far too long. One being a no-sew faux roman shade for my kitchen window. Ever since I first saw the idea of a no-sew shade on pinterest I had been wanting to make this happen. But I had two main concerns that I wasn't sure how to handle. Thus the reason for continuously putting it off.

My first concern was having to disassemble blinds. Maybe it's just me, but I hate having to put up and take down blinds. I was not willing to do this until I knew for sure that I was going to be 100% happy with the end result.

Secondly, I had heard from friends who had done the original diy shade that they weren't pleased with the finished look. When you're on the outside of the house looking in you end up seeing the backside of the fabric as well as parts of the blinds. Overall it just makes for an unfinished look.

So after searching pinterest again, I chose to combine two tutorials to make it work for my window. And I'm very pleased with the result. You can check out the two I chose here and here.

This is what I was starting with. I wanted to add some color, some height to the window, and I didn't want to loose any functionality of the blinds I already had up there.

And here are all of the materials I used.

And I realized after I took that picture that I had grabbed the wrong fabric glue. So I switched it out for this one.

Let's list it out shall we...

You'll need:
*Fabric- I bought 3 yards. I measured my window in length and then added about 30 more inches. In hind sight I should have gone for a few more. But it turned out good, so who cares.
*measuring tape
*fabric glue- get one with a permanent bond.
*hot glue gun (did you notice that glue gun stand?!? That would be my grandpa's handy work from the pre-pinterest days. He definitely knew the way to a woman's heart.)
*velcro- any kind will do. I had some super cheap stuff left over from a previous craft project.
*2 tension rods- I got mine at target for about $3.50 each. They were on sale and originally cost about $3.95 I think.
*a good pair of fabric scissors
*fabric pins (not pictured)
*a good old trusty iron (not pictured)
*a piece of wood to attach the shade above the window (also not pictured. can you tell I forgot some things?)

I started by measuring out and cutting my fabric for the length.Truth be told I was originally looking for a non-geometric print because I thought all of the perfect straight lines would not be as forgiving when it came to mess ups. But it was great! And made cutting a straight line a breeze. I just found some lines to match up and cut away.

Then came time for hemming the sides. I measured the width of the space and folded both sides of fabric in to be exactly that width. This was the time to break out the iron and fabric pins. 

Truth be told I hate ironing. Like really hate it. The only time I ever use this thing is when I have to for craft projects. Thankfully, this project didn't take to long. 

Once I had my width just right and ironed, I removed the fabric pins to add the fabric glue. 

Then it was time to put the pins back in, put something heavy over the hemmed edges, and walk away for a couple of hours. 

Once the glue had dried, and I could safely remove the pins, it was time to attach both ends. 

Now here is the trick! The big idea to insure you don't have an unfinished look from  the outside of your window looking in. You're basically going to glue the end of the fabric to the top, creating one big circled loop. This is where your hot glue gun comes in handy. 

You are left with a seam where the two ends meet. This makes for a great place to attach your Velcro and hide that ugly seam! Again, just use the glue gun to attach the Velcro to the fabric. Easy peasy!

And what's even better about the whole thing is with one strip of Velcro cut and glued on, I just laid down the top piece of Velcro, cut it to be the same size, took it back up, glued it to the wood that would be used above the window, and had the length already measured out for Mr. hubs to cut for me!

Now once the Mr. came home and cut the wood to size, all that was left to do was screw the wood into the wall above the window. And I could easily hang the curtains up.

Once your curtains are up you can adjust the tension rods to tightly fit the space. (This is where it was great that I was making the curtains to fit the width of the space in between the cabinets instead of the window frame. Since my tension rod wouldn't be going in the window frame I didn't have to take down the blinds that were already there. Instead they are just tucked behind the curtains ready to be used if need be.)

Then you just have to start folding the fabric so that it drapes over one tension rod, then down to the other.

 This took a couple minutes of playing with it to make sure it was right. And even after taking the final picture I had to readjust to straighten things out a bit. But overall, I love the finished product! 

What do you think?

I'm so thankful for days like this when I can craft and not worry about going back to the real world. Now it's on to the next project... DIY canvas prints. Wish me luck!