Roman blinds, otherwise known as Roman Shades, are one of the most elegant ways to dress up a window. You can conveniently use them as standalone window treatment which can be fitted outside. It can also be fitted inside the window recess, where you may combine with curtains and cute treatments to give a layered luxury look. This article contains instructions on how you could make a lined plain Roman bind which can be fitted on a wooden batten.

Requirements you will need include fabric, lining, strips of wooden or plastic dowelling, which is 3 cm less than the blind's width. Small plastic rings of about 12mm in diameter, wooden or brass acorn, nylon cord that is 3 times (twice the length of blind + width of blind). You will also need wall cleat, stick and Sew Velcro (which is good enough for the width of the blind), 4 screw eyelets and finally, a wooden batten of dimension 2.5cm by 2.5cm by the width of the finished blind.

Procedure: Cut the fabric to the required size while you make room of 5 cm to the width for side seam allowances and another 5 cm to the length for hem allowances. This will do when 1 width of fabric is used. You can now cut out the lining to ensure similar measurements with the top fabric. You should omit any allowance for pattern matching. The fabric should be laid, with the right side up, on a flat surface.

Now, you can lay the lining on top, with the wrong side up, so as to match the rough edges. Straighten out any wrinkles and creases as you join both fabrics together and pin them. Both sides and along the bottom edges should be pinned and stitched down, 2.5cm from the raw edges. After trimming the 2 bottom corners, make a second row of stitches across the bottom, 6mm in from the raw edges. Then, you can insert a dowel into the 2 rows of stitches. Remove all the pins and turn the blind out at the right side. Press the blind, be sure to press and flatten out the seams. The blind, which is lying on a flat surface, should be lined side up as you pin the two layers together afresh.

5 cm from the top raw edge, draw a pencil line across the blind width. Divide the remaining length into two sections of about 20cm and 30cm, while there should be a half section at bottom edge and mark. Draw pencil lines, which should be parallel to the top edges and perpendicular to the sides, across the blinds at the marks. To create pockets for the dowel, cut strips of lining fabric 7.5cm wide and as long as the blind is wide.

Sew the pockets to the blind as you trace the marked lines. Your machine stitching should be soft on the blind! Slide a length of wooden dowelling into each pocket and sew the open does. Position the plastic rings in rows down the whole length of the blind, at regular intervals, and hand -sew them to the outer edges of the pockets. Turn down 2.5cm, to the wrong side, and press at the top edge. On the wrong side, close to the fold, pin and stitch the sew side of the Velcro across the blind top. Avoid puckering by stitching on both sides along the same direction.

Press the two sides of the Velcro in order to hang it. Into the underside of the batten directly above each line of rings on the blind and at the end of the batten, screw an eyelet. Divide each nylon cord into 3 and knot a length to each bottom ring. Trim the ends of the cord level as you thread them via the acorn and knot to secure. A cleat should be placed on the side of a window, at the height you like, and fixed in place. Now your Roman blind is ready! Just pull up the blinds while you wind the cords around the cleat, to assume the figure "8" position, and hold tightly in place. You can wonder at the elegance of your Roman blind afterwards!  


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