DIY No Sew Fabric Window Shades

If you are like me you get a vision in your head of how you want something to look, like a window treatment, and then either can't find anything in stores that fit your vision or the custom options are just too budget busting.  This is the story of my life.  

The generic shades that came with our house were on their last leg when I started to tackle thelongestcheapestkitchenmakeoverever.  I wanted a window treatment that packed a punch, not more generic white blinds.  Pinterest was a wonderful source of inspiration and I saw a few different ideas to make fabric shades and I opted to go with pull down shades instead of a roman shade.  I saw a couple of different methods using the inexpensive vinyl shades like they sell at Home Depot.  The first option that I tried said to glue the fabric directly onto the shade and this sounded a little easier than the other option which had you cutting off most of the vinyl shade and just gluing the top 12 inches of shade.  I also figured that by keeping the vinyl intact it would provide a nice clean backing.  After completing the first shade and mounting it in the window frame for a test drive I quickly found that the weight of both the fabric and the vinyl were too heavy for the roller shade mechanism.

So, I then tackled shade #2 using the second method of cutting off the bulk of the shade and attaching the fabric to only the top 12 inches of shade attached to the roller mechanism.

I started by laying out my fabric and the shade over top to see where to cut the fabric.  I didn't measure anything, I just eyeballed it and left about an inch slack on each side of the shade.  

Next step was to cut off the vinyl shade leaving only 12 inches of shade attached to the roller mechanism.  I then used hot glue to attach the shade to the underside of the fabric.  You want to make sure that the roller and fabric are attached so that the print side of the fabric is on the inside of the roll.

The next step is to take the flat stick piece that come with the shade to weight the bottom and attach it to the bottom edge of the fabric with hot glue.  Once the glue is dry fold it over and glue it again so that you have a smooth clean edge at the bottom.

The last step is to fold and hot glue down the sides so that you get a clean finished edge.  You could use no sew iron on hemming adhesive if you prefer, but I just used hot glue.  Here is the final result, happy colorful and functional no sew window shades.

Thank you for visiting my post.  I hope you will be inspired to ditch your boring old blinds and personalize your space with some happy fabric.