making shades from miniblinds

[marisa]

hi christin,

if you follow the link, there are really great directions, but here's my version.

disassemble the miniblinds.  pop the plastic "plug" off the metal piece at the bottom.  don't cut the heavy cord that runs through the middle of the slats.  take the lighter-weight "ladder" style cord (runs down the front and back with "rungs" between each slat) and run your scissors up one of the vertical cords, cutting all the horizontal "rungs" and then you can pull the slats off the main cords.

assemble the shades.   you only use a few slats.  mine are spaced 9" apart, but you can decide how to space them out based on how you want them to look.  just remember that the folded fabric will be half the distance between slats.  lay out the fabric (i used my kitchen table but the floor would work) wrong side up.  set the top hardware of the blinds on the fabric and pull the cords down.  slide the slats you are using back onto the cords, then the bottom bar, then i guess you can put the plug back in, but i tied a bead onto the cord at the right length for my windows.  then position all the slats and glue them in place with fabritac.  have you use fabritac.  be careful not to glue the cord to the fabric. it's okay to leave a little unglued space on the slats near the hole that the cord passes through.

finish the shades.   trim excess fabric so that you have about an excess inch at the top and bottom, and two to three inches on the sides.  fold up and glue the bottom around the bottom bar.  neatly tuck up the bottom corners, fold in the sides and glue hem (this should encase a couple inches of the ends of the slats).  at the top, you can fold the fabric over before gluing it down, or just trim to the top of the hardware and leave a raw edge to be covered in ribbon something.  whatever.  or just glue it and forget it.  the only trick at the top is to leave the ends unglued so that you can slide this thing back into the mounting hardware and let the fabric cover that up.  so leave the ends loose - does that make any sense?

finally . . . my shades are just one panel of fabric.  in the comments of the tutorial i linked to, it said lining makes it too heavy and you have to attach the lining fabric to the main fabric between the slats as well, so they fold together.  sounded like too much work to me, and what do i care if a few neatly and evenly spaced white strips show on the back of my shades when they're down?  if you don't like the raw edge of fabric on the side hems, you could glue ribbon on there.  i don't think it looks bad.  nobody is standing on my front porch inspecting them, and they're usually only closed at night anyway.  i'm so, so not a perfectionist though!     you could put in the work to get a really professional finish to these, but i love mine as they are.

[christinc21]

thank you!

[roccstarr75]

Thank you so much for sharing this!  I hate mini blinds too, but was thinking they might be the only solution for a couple of my windows.  I love the ease of hanging and operating them, they're just so fugly!  I noticed on the original, someone asked about finishing the back.  I think this is a great idea. You can get white or off-white (really just about anything!) fabric for pretty cheap, and that way all your windows look the same from outside.  You could have green shades in one room and purple in te other, but from the outside, they'll all match!  Again, thanks for showing us this, Its definitely on my list!!!

[skaborsk]

thanks so much for posting this! i tried it and although its not perfect (i got impatient while taking measurements), i love my birdie shade!

[marisa]

awesome!  thanks so much for posting yours.  i love the fabric you chose.