Pin THIS Martha--No Sew Faux Roman Blinds

So, I know that I am WAY behind the rest of the world, but I just joined Pinterest.  My world has changed forever.  I'm not one of those who pins all my hopes and dreams, but rather one who pins things I think I can actually do.  That's where I got the idea to make some faux blinds for my bathroom.  Actually, the idea was to do it in my kitchen in a yellow fabric, but I decided I needed a trial run in a room that is seldom visited by guests.  Smart, Right?

Off I go to Tar-jay with the one and three year olds in tow.  A quick trip to Target + two small children = IMPOSSIBLE.  I quickly grabbed the three tension rods I needed and headed over to the table cloth aisle.  Apparently the three year old throught the tension rods were swords that would be perfect to smack his baby sister with.  I confiscated the Tension Rods, which led to a screaming three year old who kept yelling that I was "a mean 'ol thing."  Yes, yes I am.  Meanwhile the one year old is turned around standing up (while strapped in) from the seat part of the cart and is yelling "Daddy" at the top of her lungs.  I didn't find a table cloth that I liked, but I did manage to find a shower curtain that caught my attention.  Into the cart it went with the chaos.  We loaded everything and everyone into the car and headed across the street to Michael's to find some no-sew fabric clue.  This is when I realized that in his wild fury the three year old had pitched his Rainbow flip-flops out of the cart while we were in Target.  Back to Target I went with the baby on my hip and a screaming, barefooted three year old trotting along beside me.  He was screaming because his shoes were lost,  REALLY?  Then you shouldn't have thrown them out of the cart.  After more than my fair share of weird looks because my kid was walking around without shoes, they were found and we headed for home.  The fabric glue would have to wait until the next day since, by this time, it was time to meet the bus to get my oldest child.

Finally, on day two all supplies were purchased and it was time to make something fabulous.  I have to admit, the actual construction of the blinds wasn't NEARLY as difficult as the shopping.  I seriously just measured, cut, and glued.  Viola!  Fabulous faux shades for the bathroom!  It was so easy I was able to finish one large shade during nap time, and I had so much fabric left over that I was able to make a small shade for another window and a throw pillow cover for our bed.  I didn't double the fabric like the insructions stated, but I probably will when I tackle blinds for the kitchen just to give them a more polished look.

The shower curtain was $19.99, the large Tension Rods were $6.59 each, and the Fabric Glue was $12.99, which I thought was a bit expensive, but I barely used 1/4 of the bottle so I have PLENTY left for future projects.  The smaller tension rods were only $4.04 each.  I followed the directions from this BLOG to the letter to make the blinds.  The only difference is I left our wooden blinds behind the fabric ones so that I can still lower them.  I don't need the neighbors seeing THAT much of me.

For the smaller blind, I took two scraps and glued them together to get the length I needed.  You can't see the seam because it is hidden under the folds. The pillow was a major after thought.   I took the existing cover off of the pillow and used it to measure the length of fabric I would need.  Instead of gluing together two seperate squares, I measured out double the fabric and folded it over, so that I would only have to glue three sides instead of four.  The final seam is tricky since the pillow is already inside, but I just put it on the bottom and no one will ever notice.  Good luck with these!  It is definitely worth a try if you need some inexpensive curtains!