No Sew Faux Roman Shade (one that really works!)

 As you all know, I'm in the process of brightening up my kitchen. I know the best way to do this is to paint the cabinets, but I'm totally dragging my feet on that one. I finally decided to do it, it's just actually doing it  :) lol. I'm not really looking forward to moving out of my kitchen for a week just to do it. So, in order to drag my feet more, but get a brighter look without painting, I'm finding things that help :)

Here's the wonderful corner of this kitchen before. Obviously the dark blinds had to go...which was really too bad that I opted for them in the first place. We had to do them custom and they are real wood so it cost mucho bucks. I just had to keep telling myself that we had them for 5 years, so we got our money's worth out of them.

 

Changing out the blinds changed the whole dynamic of this corner and completely brightened it up. I also wanted to make it a littler softer and add some color and pattern, so I decided to make a roman shade. 

This roman shade actually does work and goes the length of the window, it just doesn't have the strings and what not of the real ones. You just have to unhook it instead.

Here are the supplies I used to create this:
Fabric -couple of inches wider than the window and length of the window (see step 1)
Stitch witchery or sewing machine
Iron
Ribbon
Hot glue
Command hanging strips
Ruler

Step 1: Make sure your fabric is cut about 2 inches wider than the window. If you want the fabric to drop all the way down to the bottom of the window when hung, then you need to add 1 inch seam allowance for the bottom plus the size of your valance and an inch for the top. If you are just hanging it with a rod, then probably about an extra 2 inches on the top. This may make more sense if you look at Step 2.

Using your stitch witchery, go around the two vertical sides folding in an inch and ironing down, with the stitch witchery between the fabric. Follow the instructions on the box for best results.

 Now for the bottom, I folded the sides in like a Christmas present to create the angle and then ironed it down with the stitch witchery in between the fabric once again.

 Step 2: Since I decided to hang this shade from the valance that is connected to my blinds, I took off the valance, but left the hooks on it and in the same place. You'll want to be sure they stay in the same place since if you move them and then attempt to put it back up, you may have a bracket in the way. So, just make sure they are in a spot that if you hang it back up, you won't have a problem :)

Take your valance and put it on the top part of the fabric, fold the fabric over it, leaving about an extra inch or so.

 Once you get the amount you need, fold over and then iron and 'stitch' in place along the edge.

 Step 3: Now get your valance and put it on top of where you just hemmed (back facing up), mark on your fabric where the hooks are, and then use some scissors to cut a line in the back part of the fabric. Make sure not to go all the way to the top and to not cut through the front too :)

 Slide your valance through and position the hooks through the holes.

 Step 4: Now that your fabric is all hemmed, it's time to decide where you want the folds to go. I did some relative guesstimating on what would look best and came up with doing it every 12 inches. So I measured 12" from the top and marked on the vertical hem on both sides, then another 12" and so on. Luckily my fabric was 48" long so my last mark was right on the bottom. Try to make your last mark closest to the bottom as you can to achieve the same look I did in the finished photos.

Now get your hot glue, and a piece of ribbon. Fold your ribbon in half, and glue into place along each mark. Try not to get the ribbon to go past the edge of the fabric. (I ran out of stitch witchery so I had to actually hem this up with the sewing machine..boo :( that's why you see those stictches)

 Step 5: This step was kind of a shot in the dark, but worked for me. I thought I measured everything correctly to get a certain look, but I totally didn't lol. I didn't have more sticky pieces for the command strips so I didn't want to take them off the wall, so I worked with what I had, and it turned out beautifully! I put my first command strip 8 inches from the top of the window, and then another one 2 inches below that, and the last one 2 inches below that one. I did this on both sides of the window.

Step 6: To hang your shade up, put the valance back on your blinds and then loop the ribbon on the command strips. I hooked the top two ribbons onto the top command strip, and then the 3rd one on the 2nd and the 4th one on the bottom or 3rd.

This took an hour to do, start to finish and cost about $10 including the fabric and command strips. I love how this makes my kitchen look a little bit more inviting. The hubs of course isn't so sure about it. I don't think I'll ever win him over with my projects. He always says "It'll have to grow on me". lol. Ugh...

This fabric is Pom Pom Play from Joanns by the way. It comes in this color and I believe a purple type pattern too.