Roman Blind Holiday

I have a dog who takes her guardianship of our house very seriously. Her name is Alexa, and she was introduced in a post back in October.

Alexa’s self-imposed guard duties include watching the front yard from our living room window. Whenever neighbors or strangers walk by (even on the other side of the street), or roaming animals visit our front yard, she barks, then demonstrates her willingness to tear the interloper to pieces by shredding my curtains. Over time her abuse resulted in a bent curtain rod and hardware. Plaster came off the wall around the screws holding everything. Three weeks ago she ripped a panel off the rod while my husband and I were running errands.

My husband wanted to purchase new curtains, but I knew it was only a matter of time before Alexa destroyed them too. We needed something we could put out of her reach. I detest dust collecting mini-blinds (and they have no energy saving properties) so a fabric Roman blind was the solution. I just had one problem. The window measures 70” square. Finding a ready-made blind that size isn’t easy.  They’re also expensive.

Back to the stash again. As it turned out I had a floral fabric that actually coordinates with the paint in that room. And I had more than enough.  With a decision made the race was on to get the blind finished. Until my new covering was in the window, my husband had replaced the missing curtain with a brown panel I had for another window. The remaining, tattered panel was dark blue. We really didn’t want to receive a letter from the subdivision Gestapo informing us that we had inappropriate window coverings.

I had never made a Roman blind before and would have preferred not to start with such a large window. My mom had made some Roman blinds when I was in high school. I remembered a bit about their construction. I also have a book about making fabric blinds in my craft library. However, I didn’t find it as complete as I would have liked. I tried watching various how-to videos, but I have to confess they made me nutty. There didn’t seem to be one single set of instructions to reach the final product. In the end, I formulated a plan based on the mechanical supplies I was able to find in my local stores. Once I got started, the project took 5 days of my Thanksgiving break. Overall, I’m pleased with the way it turned out, and the mechanics work. I also like the way the fabric blind provides better insulation than the curtains did. Over the Christmas break I’ll probably make a matching blind for the dining room window which is 47”x70”. After that, who knows? I have 3 other 70” square windows. Not sure I’m that ambitious.

The Project Queen