Monday, March 17, 2008

Don't snicker...


shade
Originally uploaded by gimbler
Some of us are severely window treatment impaired. Handbags and window treatments are the bane of my existence. So, please keep that in mind when I tell you I'm actually quite pleased with this. Oh, I may look back in six months and realize it's a terrible monstrosity - but, in my cold medicine addled mind, (and my general failing in the window treatment dept) this feels like a success this morning.

Since moving in last spring the bathroom windows only adornment was a white vinyl roller shade. In all these months I have not been able to find what looked to me like a good curtain or valance option.

Then inspiration struck! Or was it codeine? Matters not - what's done is done... I took a piece of fabric that I thought looked pretty and a can of spray adhesive and permanently wed the fabric to the roller shade. I left a few inches of fabric loose along the bottom so that I could gather it up to look more like a balloon style shade. A balloon shade that ROLLS! LOL

Trouble was the white vinyl underside of the shade showed at the top where it was rolled up. Luckily there was a scrap of fabric about 8 or 9 inches wide left over from trimming the edge of the shade. I "Sitch Witcher-ied" it into a long tube and now it's an overly wide "valance" that covers the top of the roller. I suppose I could have moved the hardware in an inch or two on either side - but that would require tools and I'm just not up to tools today. I'm not even up to sewing and it's a wonder I didn't burn myself with the iron! Speaking of which - the black ribbon trim that is pretending to gather the "curtain" is ironed on too. And no - the iron didn't melt the shade. Not that I thought to test that out in advance...

The cute little pull ring? It's courtesy of the lid to my husbands Mr. Peanut jar of peanuts. (I really should remember to go put some saran wrap of something over his exposed peanuts!) I popped the metal center out of the yellow plastic threaded ring and wound black yarn around it.

Done!

Then I stepped back and realized the fabric pattern was upside down...

10 comments:

Sandy said...

I don't care if it's upside down or not, I love the print and you did a really great job! I can't sew a straight line!!

We are in said...

Sandy, you are the sweetest person in blogger-land! Thanks for the kind words of encouragement.

Jennifer said...

I think it looks really great! What a good idea for turning a boring roller shade into something AWESOME! Almost makes me wish I hadn't just bought bamboo shades... I would take a trip to the thrift store to find some roller ones!

Sandy said...

I here you won the lamp! Congrats!!

We are in said...

Thanks, Jennifer! You are both too kind.

Sandy, it was DIYDiva who won that very cool lamp. Though I'm thinking of buying one from the website Aimee linked to.

Joanne said...

How clever! We have a house full of roller shades and a quilt room full of fabric. Hmmmmm...

Sandy said...

If you have time, stop over at my spot -- I put something on there for you!

We are in said...

Hi Green Fairy! I'm glad you like it - if you make one I'd love to see a pic. I may make another for the kitchen. Perhaps something striped that doesn't have a top and bottom to the pattern! LOL

(((Sandy))) You are such a doll! I'm sorry I didn't see what you'd done earlier. I'm honored! :o)

Anonymous said...

What a jolly idea! And it rolls up nicely and doesn't bind?

Never mind about the direction of the fabric. It looks like the flowers are wafting down from the sky. Very pleasant and relaxing.

Good on ya!

deaduser539539 said...

Yeah, so, while trying to fix two of our roller blinds several weeks ago, the springs in both of them broke. Now they only have one speed--down all the way. This is a great idea--now I just wish we had some roller blinds that worked (well, ones that worked where I wasn't worried about breaking the springs in them, which is all the rest of them in the house).

For what it's worth, I didn't even notice that the pattern was upside-down until you mentioned it, and I'm normally one of those people who points out "consistency" issues in movies all the time. :)