How to Make a Roman Blind from a Cellular Blind

Dear Chicago House,

You remember the horror of your window treatments when we moved in right? They quickly got ripped down but I did leave in place a few of those cellular blinds. They are functional but rather bland so I thought I’d try a spice one up and make a custom roman blind with NO DESTRUCTION to the cellular blind. How great is that, particularly if you are in rented accommodation and want to make the place more “your own”. Or if you are a decorator and you tire of a fabric..you know how that goes.

So we have gone from this…

to this

So how do you make a roman blind from a cellular blind? Here is how

What you need

Tape measure
Scissors
Light weight fabric
Scrap fabric strips
Thin wooden dowels (Jo-Anns)
Saw
Velcro tape
Hot glue gun
Light weight thread or string
Two magnets

Sewing the blind

1. Measure your blind
2. Add 5″ to the width and 10″ to the height. Cut out a piece of fabric to these dimensions.
3. Hem all sides so that you final fabric is 2″ wider than the cellular blind and sew a strip of velcro across the top of the fabric.
   
4. Using a hot glue to stick the other half of the velcro to the top of your cellular blind.
5. Cut your dowels so they are about 1″ less than the width of your fabric.
6. Wrap them in strips of scrap fabric (I used old curtain lining) and sew the sleeve into place using a zipper foot. The dowel should extend past the end of the sleeve by about 1″
   
7. Work out how many fold you’d like your blind to have and measure position the dowels on the back of your fabric so they are evenly spaced. Pin into place then sew, again using a zipper foot …this is the trickiest part of the whole project.Snip any excess fabric away from the dowel sleeves.
   

Congratulations you now have a roman blind …now to hang it!

Hanging the blind

1. Attach the fabric to the top of the cellular blind using the velcro you have already glued up there.
2. Take a look at the side of the blind and see which cells lie closest to your dowels. Mark these cells with pins and then pin the fabric out of the way to give you space to work.
3. Cut lengths of lightweight string about 15″ wider than your cellular blind. Tie one piece around a small magnet. Insert into one of your marked cells then use the other magnet to pull the thread through the blind until it pops out of the other side. Repeat for all your marked cells.
   
4. Unpin the fabric and tie the thread you have just threaded to the dowels.
   

And you are done!
The blind is fully operational using the mechanism from the cellular blind.

Love from

Creative in Chicago

XX

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