Making a Roman Shade With a Curtain Panel and Mini-Blinds

We used a simple white linen curtain panel that we’d purchased last year from IKEA. You can use any fabric you like, though I loved the farmhouse vibe that the linen panel gave to the room. However, it had sat in packaging for quite a while and it was full of creases when I pulled it out. I washed, dried and ironed it completely flat before moving forward.

Then, I cut the fabric out to meet the shape of the window opening. The trick here is to not cut it to meet the exact specifications. Rather, leave one inch on the sides and two inches on the top and bottom for wiggle room, because you’ll be folding it over a little later.

Next, I folded in both sides of the curtain panel ½ of an inch and press with an iron. If you’re handy with a sewing machine and don’t mind the look of stitching on your roman shade, you can sew the fabric at this point. I, however, cannot navigate such a machine despite my best efforts, so I decided to use good, old-fashioned hemming tape. I simply put it inside the folded in portion and ironed on top of it to adhere it in place. Worked like a charm! I repeated the same steps for the top and bottom of the fabric. When you’re done, you should have a rectangle, with all four sides folded in ½ of an inch.

Then, we moved on to the mini-blinds. Using a hot glue gun, we applied a hefty portion of hot glue to the top bar of the blinds. With the fabric laying face-side down, I laid the blinds down on top of it, making sure the top of the fabric was in line with the top of the mini blinds.

This is one of the most important parts, and one I almost slipped up on. We had to next cut the ladder string out of the blinds. There are two strings on your blinds. One is called the pull cord and the other is the ladder cord. The pull cord is thicker and is the “main” cord that you see running vertically up and down the blinds. On the other hand, the ladder cord is comprised of all of those tiny horizontal strings you see attached to the pull cord. I wiggled my scissors in between the two and snipped each piece of the ladder cord. My blinds had three separate string portions, so I repeated the step three times.

When I was done, I removed the bottom bar from the blinds. You’ll see little plastic caps keeping it attached. Remove those and the bar will slide right off. Keep them handy though, because you’ll need them later!

Next, I slid off a majority of the mini-blinds, leaving only about 5-7 intact. With the bottom bar removed, these slide right off, so it’s no issue! The ones left behind will become your roman shade folds. A good rule of thumb is to have a mini-blind about every six inches or so. If you end up having extra after you measure this out, just remove the extra slats off the bottom.

Then, I placed a small line of glue under each blind to adhere it to my fabric, being very careful not to glue the pull cord to anything. You’ll need that pull cord to be free so you can move the folds up and down, so leave it be.

Finally, just slide that bottom bar of the blinds back into place and tie a knot at the bottom of each pull cord. Then, replace the plastic caps to keep it all secure. Using your glue gun, glue the bottom bar to the fabric it is sitting on top of. This is to ensure that once your shade is up, no portion of the blinds will be showing.

Then, we moved on to the mini-blinds. Using a hot glue gun, we applied a hefty portion of hot glue to the top bar of the blinds. With the fabric laying face-side down, I laid the blinds down on top of it, making sure the top of the fabric was in line with the top of the mini blinds.

This is one of the most important parts, and one I almost slipped up on. We had to next cut the ladder string out of the blinds. There are two strings on your blinds. One is called the pull cord and the other is the ladder cord. The pull cord is thicker and is the “main” cord that you see running vertically up and down the blinds. On the other hand, the ladder cord is comprised of all of those tiny horizontal strings you see attached to the pull cord. I wiggled my scissors in between the two and snipped each piece of the ladder cord. My blinds had three separate string portions, so I repeated the step three times.

When I was done, I removed the bottom bar from the blinds. You’ll see little plastic caps keeping it attached. Remove those and the bar will slide right off. Keep them handy though, because you’ll need them later!

Next, I slid off a majority of the mini-blinds, leaving only about 5-7 in tact. With the bottom bar removed, these slide right off, so it’s no issue! The ones left behind will become your roman shade folds. A good rule of thumb is to have a mini-blind about every six inches or so. If you end up having extra after you measure this out, just remove the extra slats off the bottom.

Then, I placed a small line of glue under each blind to adhere it to my fabric, being very careful not to glue the pull cord to anything. You’ll need that pull cord to be free so you can move the folds up and down, so leave it be.

Finally, just slide that bottom bar of the blinds back into place and tie a knot at the bottom of each pull cord. Then, replace the plastic caps to keep it all secure. Using your glue gun, glue the bottom bar to the fabric it is sitting on top of. This is to ensure that once your shade is up, no portion of the blinds will be showing.

Finally, we hung our shade in the window using the hardware that the mini-blinds came with! Simple as that!