March 23 2011 Newsletter

Spring has finally arrived. The mornings are still very cold in Colorado, so our sprinkler system can’t be turned on for several more weeks. I have a serious case of Spring Fever and spent the weekend at Garden stores hoping to see something I could plant. I passed up on the pansies because I had visions of me carrying the watering can outside every day. We are in the middle of a major drought so the possibility of Nature helping me out is nil.

I have lots of sewing projects that I need to get done before the arrival of Summer Visitors. I love to be woken by the sunlight, but our kids want their kids to sleep in. Now that I’ve figured out how to make child-safe shades, I need to finish the guest area shades. If I can keep myself indoors, there should be plenty of time. Working with fabric is certainly a great substitute for digging in the dirt.










Designing Borders for your Shade


An easy way to embellish a Roman shade is to add a border all around the edges using a contrasting fabric. CB of Broomfield, Colorado designed this shade for her dining room. Because of the wide expanse of the shade (85" wide) she also added a simple pattern using the same fabric that borders the panel.



CB cut strips of the contrasting silk fabric for the internal design and sewed them onto the background fabric, which was also silk. That was much easier than piecing the front of the shade. She did band the shade with wide strips as described in the next section of this Newsletter.

This large shade that I made in 2004 measures 95" wide by 46" long and shows another way to embellish a shade. It brightens up a home office. The homeowner did not want to cover up the beautiful alder trim on the windows, so we went with an inside-mount shade. He also expressed the need for only one shade rather than three on this large window.

Due to the wide expanse we came up with a very simple pieced pattern that mimicked the three windows. I love the way the shade looks when it is raised.




Adding a Simple Border to a Roman Shade

This shade was featured in our last Newsletter article on making the mounting board for a Self-Valance Shades. This time we'll discuss how to add the borders on the shade. It's easier to include the seam allowances in these borders and then make the shade in the normal way. I have directions on how to determine the cut size of your contrasting banding in the FAQs Section.

The standard instructions (and Hardware Calculator) tell you to cut your front decorative fabric 8-inches longer than the Finished Shade Length. This allows 6-inches for the hem (a double 3-inch one) and 2-inches at the top to turn over to the back and for "slop". You still need these extra inches for a bordered shade, but you have to divide the additions up between each border. Click on the drawing and you will be taken to the FAQs Section with complete instructions on cutting your borders.