How to make blinds with your own hands from fabric?

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:47

Blinds are a very convenient and practical thing. They protect the room well from sunlight and prying eyes, take up little space compared to curtains, they are convenient to use. Making blinds with your own hands from fabric is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance.

Curtains and blinds

Empty windows, especially at night, from the side of the room look somehow uncomfortable and somewhat frightening. And in order to get rid of this impression, to protect the room and the people there from prying eyes, the windows are hidden behind all sorts of special devices - curtains, curtains, curtains and blinds. By the way, the word "curtains" comes from the French store, which means "blind". But the word "blinds" is derived from the French jalousie, which, surprisingly, means "jealousy" in translation. Maybe it means that you know less - you sleep more calmly? It probably was. But one thing is clear that to this day blinds - special devices on windows that cover them completely or partially - are in great demand.

Blinds are different

Decorate the interior of the room - a matter of taste of the owner or hostess. You can, of course, hire a designer who will plan everything as he sees fit, although he will consult with the customer. But to develop the interior of your own home on your own, with your mind, imagination, as well as to create some important and beautiful things with your own hands is informative, interesting, entertaining, practical and economical. You can make, for example, do-it-yourself blinds from fabric, wooden slats, plastic slats. It is allowed to use metal profiles and even paper. For any needlewoman, the most convenient and practical option is to make do-it-yourself window blinds from fabric.

Such window protectors are vertical, horizontal and rolled. However, curtains are most often called rolled, not blinds, although the essence remains the same. An interesting option for horizontal protection and decoration for windows is Roman blinds.

Fabric, accessories, tools

Before you make blinds with your own hands from fabric, the home master will prepare everything you need to work and get a high-quality result, so as not to be distracted by the search for what you need in the creative process. For fabric curtains, whatever they are, you will need:

• Fabric in the following quantity: window opening size + hem width + width for the necessary sewn-in fittings (if needed for the design of the blinds) + decorative length, for example, for pleats.
• Threads for sewing blinds.
• Durable cordfor arranging a rotary device. Depending on the design of the blinds, the cord may need 3-4 lengths compared to the length of the fabric, so it is better to buy cord with a margin.
• Tools - pliers, thick needle.
• Fittings - rings, hangers, sliders for slats.
• Liquid nails.
• Double-sided and single-sided tape.
• Long ruler.
• Pencil.

This is everything you need to make window guards and decorations. For a particular model, one or another fittings and fasteners will be required. It is convenient to use special kits for making blinds, sold in specialized stores.

How simple

The easiest way to make blinds with your own hands from fabric is to sew a Roman blind. Although this version of the light-shielding design can be different - with or without slats, with various types of installation of blinds along the window opening - inside, outside or along the frame. But it is precisely this variation of making blinds with your own hands from fabric that will step by step help even those who have never done anything like this in their lives.

Calculation of fabric for Roman blinds

If you correctly approach the preliminary stage of any work - the calculation of the material, the construction of the structure, the careful planning of all stages, then the result will only please. The same applies to making fabric blinds with your own hands.

The master class should begin with the calculation of the required amount of fabric. It is done simply - the estimated height and widthblinds + 2 centimeters to hem the edges on the right and left, as well as on top. You need to add 10 centimeters to the bottom, since it is necessary to insert a weighting bar into the lower collar. It is also possible to provide a larger valve on top if it is intended to make the curtain one piece with the cornice. You will also need a backing sheet. It is calculated as follows: the height and width of the light protection + 2 centimeters per hem on all sides. If knitting needles are supposed to be sewn into each fold as a weighting agent, then the length of the wrong side must be increased as follows: multiply the number of folds by double the thickness of the knitting needle plus a centimeter for a loose fit.

Beauty in the folds

Blinds with vertical folds will look very impressive if there are exactly the right amount of folds - no more, no less. Masters who are engaged in the manufacture of such window decorative draperies are advised to opt for a number of folds from 5 to 9. If you take fewer turns, then the blinds will be too rustic, and more folds will make the window too conspicuous. Since the folds must be at the same distance from one another, the calculation is made by simple division - the height of the opening is divided by the selected number of folds. The result is the height of one crease.

This calculation option is most suitable if the folds will be rigidly attached to the plastic lamellas. If this option is selected,then you can use the old horizontal blinds. If the folds are supposed to be soft, then the old blinds are not needed, and the drapery of the raised canvas is formed freely. If you look at the do-it-yourself fabric blinds, the photo of which is presented below, you can understand how folds form on such curtains.

Construction process

You can sew blinds with your own hands from fabric by starting a phased work. First you need to measure the area of \u200b\u200bthe window on which the blinds will be placed. For example, on a window frame. If the blinds must protrude along the walls, then it is necessary to provide for the width of such protrusions on both sides of the window opening. Having measured the required amount of facial tissue, you should sweep the folds on the right and left sides, from above and a wide turn from below, into which the weighting bar will fit. It is best made from a wooden block - it is light enough not to harm the entire structure, including the cornice.

Now on the wrong side, in the same way, baste the hem on all sides. Mark the same distance for the folds.

• If you need to insert knitting needles, then the pockets for them should be sewn on a typewriter or stitched by hand.
• If lamellas from old horizontal aluminum blinds are used, then they are carefully glued according to the markings. By the way, in this way you can get a full-fledged design by removing unnecessary slats from old blinds, pushing the remaining ones to the right distance,while maintaining the guide cords of the entire structure. The slats are glued neatly, without affecting the places where the cords pass, for their free movement.

Lift mechanism

What is interesting about blinds as a means of protecting windows? Your way of working. After all, when unfolded, they completely or partially cover the view, and when folded, they take up very little space. This effect is obtained due to the lifting or rotary (if we are talking about a vertical structure) mechanism. It seems that this is something complicated, but in fact, everything ingenious, as always, is simple. Two or three cords are freely passed through special rings evenly spaced on the panel. At the top, they also pass through the rings attached to the cornice, and are connected into a single cord, equipped with a suspension.

• If you sew fabric blinds with your own hands from beginning to end, only from improvised materials, then the fold lifting mechanism will be elementary and will require an additional locking device in the form of hooks next to the blinds - on the wall, window opening, on the window frame. You will need to attach a cord with a suspension to these hooks so that the blinds do not open.
• If old blinds or a special purchased mechanism are used, then nothing additional needs to be equipped, since all the locking elements are already inside the eaves.

Final Assembly

So, two panels are ready. If you have experience sewing on a typewriter, then you can immediatelyinsert the knitting needles and sew the panels with a seam along the very edge. You can connect the front and back parts, leaving room for the knitting needles, then turn the curtain inside out, iron it well, and only then insert the knitting needles and the weighting bar. In this case, the holes for all the details can be carefully sewn up by hand.

• Then, according to the markup, the rings are manually sewn under the cords, capturing both the front and back panels.
• Now you can thread the cords through the rings, carefully securing them to the lower rings.
• Screw special threaded rings into the wooden cornice and pass the cords through them, gradually moving from one to another.
• If it was provided, then hide this bar with a cloth using a Velcro tape. If this option was missed, then the curtain fabric along the edge is attached to the bar using a construction stapler.
• Provide all two or three cords at some distance with a weighting bead.
• Fix the wooden block-cornice.

Blind care

Do-it-yourself fabric blinds are convenient for their practicality. Especially if they have Velcro tape (Velcro tape) in the form of fasteners on the eaves. They can be easily removed and, without removing the knitting needles and weighting agents, simply wipe off the dust with your hands, in a suspended state such blinds will straighten out, and with the help of a steamer they can be easily brought to perfect condition right on the weight without damaging the knitting needles and the weighting bar.

The only moment: if the blinds are sewn fromcolored cotton or linen fabric that is prone to shrinkage, then it is best to wash the fabric in hot water before use to check for shedding and allow it to "sit down". Good luck!