I chose mistreat…I’m not talking about my family or friends…I’m talking about the window in Em’s room.  Her room needs some attention.  I have been procrastinating for a year and a half…my excuse was that her crib, and therefore crib bedding & decor, were still in there and I needed to wait until the crib was done (sniff, sniff…it is in the attic…they grow up so fast!).  So no more excuses!  Her room is one of my major 2012 Home Goals.  I found this tutorial over at The Little Green Notebook for making a faux Roman shade, just what I wanted for this window.  I tweaked it just a tad…because I’m a little bit lazy.  This is a super easy, super cheap, no sew, window MIStreatment (got that phrase from Nester).

I started with the super cheap mini blinds…yes, the less than $5 kind.  My window is 34×60, so the closest size was 34×64.  I laid them out, fully extended, and measured so I knew how many slats I needed to nix.

And decided the size of the folds…with a 60 inch height, I went with an even spacing of 10 inches…so I would have 6 folds.  That measurement is completely customizable, the mini blinds have 1 inch slats, so the math is simple (this is very helpful if you live amongst the chaos that I do).  The tutorial I read instructed to remove all slats, then put the ones you needed back in…this is where I got lazy.  I thought “what would I do with a bunch of cheap mini blind slats?”…the only thing I came up with was play swords for the kids…definitely don’t need anymore things swinging around that I need to close my eyes & cover my ears, praying something I care about doesn’t shatter in the floor.  I opted for cutting the unnecessary slats out.

Don’t cut the center pull cord!  This will send you back to buy a new set.    After I cut the 3 I didn’t need for length out, I went ahead and adjusted the length of the blinds…had to fish the pull cord out of the bottom piece…these tweezers were handy for that.

I retied the pull cord (but didn’t trim just in case…I have commitment issues, it’s a Duckwall thing), shoved it back in, and replaced the little caps.  Then, I got back to cutting out the slats.  I started at the top, removed 9, left the 10th, and repeated the process ’til I got to the bottom.

Now, I grabbed a handful of the trimmed ones…

…and pulled them out.  Pretty easy, I thought.

I repeated this until they were all out.  This is what was left…

I laid my fabric of choice (that I got for $3.50/yard!) wrong side down, and measured 3 inches on either side (round numbers work better for my brain).  This is basically your ‘seam allowance’…really the ‘glue allowance’.

I used the selvedge for one edge, thinking it would be much closer to a straight line than what I could cut crawling across the floor.  Once this was cut, I did iron all of the wrinkles out (I know!  Very un-lazy of me).  Be sure to leave plenty along the top and bottom edges for the final covering.

AND I had to press the ‘glue allowance’ down.  See, I used my sewing board to measure my 34 inch width, this is a really cheap ($15ish), very handy little thing to have around.  I folded right along the lines, and pressed with my iron as I went along.  I didn’t have any trouble using my iron directly on the board, but I did turn off my steam.  Then I laid the blinds FRONT SIDE DOWN on the WRONG SIDE of the fabric.

Open the fold, and apply the fabric glue (I probably used more than necessary, and it did bleed through the fabric just a little).  Press it down, I wanted to make sure the slats were glued to the fabric as well, so I paid extra attention to pressing them down.

I did this the full length of both sides.  Then you have to tend to the top and bottom.  I did the top first.

I eye-balled the amount I needed, folded and pressed it…then trimmed the corners so they didn’t stick out when it was finished.  Time for more fabric glue…

First I tried to attach the fabric to the cheesy mini blind with the fabric glue (it was open and handy), but I couldn’t get it to work…so I had to employ Mabel (otherwise known as my handy dandy hot glue gun).  I tapped my toes waiting on her to get ready.

First, I tried to run a bead of glue the full width of the header (I had to wait on her to heat up, I wanted to finish!)…but my impatience cost me, the glue cooled to quickly and I had to pull it off and work in sections.  I did about six inches at a time.  DON’T PUT GLUE ON THE THE PULLEY THAT LOWERS THE SHADE!

Once the header was covered…I moved on to the bottom (footer?  This isn’t a term paper).  I glued each side, wrapping the fabric around tightly as I started a new side.

Again, don’t glue the pull cords!  You pretty much need to avoid messing with the pull cords in any form or fashion (other than trimming the length).

This won’t show at all when the shade is in place.  That’s it!  Now you just mount the hardware in your window and voila!  I did recruit darling husband for this part…it makes him feel manlier when I beg ask him to wield his power tools.  After the hardware was mounted and he went to place the shade, we realized that some of the header covering would have to be pulled back to put in the little tabs that will keep the shade from flying out of the window every time you want to raise or lower it.  This is easily fixed with a dab more of hot glue.

Now stand back and admire what you’ve done…I was quite proud of the result!  The tough part was deciding, midway…raised…or lowered.

I still can’t believe I did this for less than $15!

Today’s secret revealed…I am totally in love with Instagram, how do y’all feel about these type of pics???