Roman Shade pattern

I made Roman shades last year; I did a search on the Home and Garden Channel website...hgtv.com, I believe, and found a bunch of directions. I believe there were also some patterns on diy.com. I made window quilts for the living room~ they work great. Mine are not patchwork; they're one material on the 'front', and a co-ordinating lining. Here is the site I used in case you're interested.

HTH Dawn

Thank you so much for the link! I looked at it and it's really nice. This is seriously a consideration...

Dawn, thanks so much for the tip on HGTV as well as the homesteading site (which I previously replied.) I found so many patterns on HGTV; I'm afraid to look at the DIY site! I have to decide between a quilted or a handkerchief linen type. I have saved the homesteading site for other references and it's quite interesting to read.

I have some cotton batiste that is screaming at me to do something with. We didn't have much of a summer this year, so it wasn't worth making a nightgown; maybe I'll make the shades out of it. Thank you again.

I use the Conran Book of Soft Furnishings, mostly, plus The Curtain Book, by (I think) Caroline Clifton-Hogg. That's because they're packed with ideas, but they're not free...

:) Trish

My most favorite window treatment book is "Curtains Draperies and Shades" published by Sunset books.

A wonderful site for Roman shades (and other marvelous window treatments) is :

Roman shades are so easy to make. You will love how fast they go together. If you need help, email me. I've done a mess of them!

Sharon

--no snow yet, thank goodness! But I've had to cover plants the last two nights. Still have egg plant growing! lol

Re: Roman Shade pattern snipped-for-privacy@INVALIDepix.net (Beth=A0Pierce)

I have to decide between a quilted or a handkerchief linen type. I have some cotton batiste that is screaming at me to do something with. We didn't have much of a summer this year, so it wasn't worth making a nightgown; maybe I'll make the shades out of it. Thank you again.

You're so welcome, Beth...I'm glad you liked the window quilts!! Mine are rolled up and tucked away, but I'm about to get them out and up...we could really notice a difference! I was concerned with them really darkening the room, but they don't. The front fabric is a light color, then batting and the back I made from sheets in a denim color. I love the homesteading site, too!! Scads of info. Good luck!

Sometime ago, Carol Duval had a gentleman guest on her show, using woolen blankets as window covering. He used plaid ones and the rod looked like a tree limb. He said the cuts in the blanket at the top would not ravel.if it was wool and the blankets really kept the rooms warm and the bright plaids lent color to the room Here in Houston, these are not needed. Emily

I saw a nice treatment once done with sofa throws. They were tartan blankets, thick and heavy, with fringing at the ends. The woman who made them just flipped the top edge over about 6-8 inches, sewed it down and ran curtain tape along the back. It therefore gives you a curtain with a fringe along the bottom, plus a kind of fake fringed pelmet at the top - very pretty.

Haven't tried it yet, but very tempted.

:) Trish

Thanks for the tip, Cea, about Old Man Winter. Haven't had to worry about that up until last year, being from "sunny" So. Calif. My "thing" is I want the light to come through; that's why I put up the lace curtains. Granted, the windows (and ceilings) are short upstairs (a turn-of-the-century farmhouse has those), and I want as much light in the room as possible. I think I'll follow Dawn's advice about making the quilted ones. I don't mind seeing snow on the roof, as the windows both face out on the main floor roof, but sometimes I might want to shut that out and still have the light. And being burnt out from a pieced strip quilt that took me about nine months to finish, I'll either use larger quilt blocks or one solid piece of fabric.

What would you th>

Dawn,

How did you make the t> You're so welcome, Beth...I'm glad you liked the window quilts!! Mine are

Sharon, thanks for the site! Very explanatory. I will be emailing you, more than likely. You are such a sweetheart! What ones do you find most useful--inside mount or outside mount? I'm trying to decide as I'm taking down the lace curtains entirely.

As to snow, today's it's raining--go figure. Next week I'm going around the yard and picking up "yard art" to store. DH is making a spot in the basement for me to put my gardening stuff in.

Hey Beth, I attached a piece of lath board to the wall above the window (with screws), then tacked the quilt to the lath with upholstery tacks. Instead of the pulleys, I put screw eyes right above the lath board (I only needed

2-- if the windows were larger, I would have used more to even the roll of the quilt), and then directly below the top two, except under the quilt, then ran the blind cord like I did for the Roman shades, except instead of pulling the quilt up in folds, it rolls up. Difficult to explain, at least for me. If you decide to do it this way and need further explanation, feel free to email me. Dawn

You're so welcome. Don't hesitate to email me!

I like inside mounted ones best. The rooms in our house are all fairly small. So I like to keep the window treatments on the smallish side. I don't want the windows to "take over" the whole room. Also, I think they insulate better that way. Nothing scientific or anything to back that up, but it seems to stop drafts better with the shade inside the "alcove" of the window. You can definitely combine the window quilt and roman shade. That would look lovely. It's something that's on my to-do list for our bedroom. lol ('course by the time I get around to it, we'll likely be moved to another house!! LOL)

The front of my house faces west. And in the afternoon we get a lot of sun!!! (New subdivision, no large trees.) The dining room seems to get it worse than any other room in teh front of the house. (how that works in a ranch style house is beyond me, but there it is. ) I did a roman shade for in there. It is a three layer shade. I put a light colored fabric on the outside, that faces the street. That's the "lining." The fabric you see in the dining room is a floral print. In curtain terms, I see that called the "facing" fabric. Then I did an interlining of a dark blue. In the afternoons, the sun was so bright that the floral print couldn't be seen at all. Just lost it in the sun, like a fly ball on a little league field. ;) The dark fabric in the middle solved all of that. Using three layers like that is not that far removed from making a window quilt. So I'm sure the two would work together.

With your batiste, I think it would work with a layer of batting and a backing fabric. Instead of muslin, look at some white broadcloth, or even a white quilting flannel. Have you got a Wal-Mart out there? Mine has the best stuff over with the calicos. It's a solid cotton, like a broadcloth only heavier. Here, it's about $4 per yard, IIRC. IME, muslin is sometimes not very sturdy. I know there is great muslin out there that would work fine. But what I've found around here would not stand up to the stress of the rings pulling against it. I speak from experience. When I used it, the rings popped off the muslin within a few weeks. It just wasn't strong enough to take that much straining and it ripped out all around where the ring was sewn to it. :( Also, remember that the tighter the weave of the fabric, the more insulation it will give you heat-wise. I know stopping light isn't a concern for you in this room. So I agree that sticking with all light colors or white would work well.

You can leave your lace curtains up too. If you position your screw eyes just right, there would be room for a tension rod for the sheers behind it. If you can't squeeze the room for it there, put the sheers on a tension rod that is mounted 1" below the hardware at the top of the roman shade. That way when the shade is pulled up, you would have the lace there. I think that would be really pretty.

Yep. We are storing things away too. *sigh* Always makes me a little sad to put the summer things all away for the year.

But the good news is we are supposed to get a little more warm this next week!! That means that maybe those two little zucchini will have time to finish growing!! The eggplant can do what it wants..... I sliced, breaded, fried and froze 6 of them yesterday. That translates to enough for about 5 dinners for 4 people of eggplant parmesan; and one side dish amount thereof.

--the children will not be amused..... LOL

Sharon