Room-darkening shades, all dressed up

Any time you start a project involving spray adhesive, you know you are going to have fun. And a bunch of stickiness. 

I had an idea to dress up regular room darkening shades (about $5 at Wal-mart). I wanted them to look like classy (read expensive) roman shades. This probably isn't an original idea, but it came to me in the middle of the night as a stroke a brilliance. Why sew when you could use spray adhesive and hot glue?

First, I fit the shades in the windows and hung them. I measured the area that needed to be covered.

I bought an extra queen sized sheet set when I bought the twins for the girls' beds. The twin sets were $4.99 and the queen was $7.99 at Amazon. The flat sheet is a curtain for the closet and I took apart the fitted sheet to use on the shades. I just cut off the elastic around the edges and cut the corners. The end product is a pretty large piece of fabric to work with.

I cut my pieces for the shades, ironed them, and then sprayed the furled out shade (on a top of a paint clothe) with spray adhesive. The fabric was a little tricky to get straight on the very sticky shade, but I started at the bottom and worked my way up, leaving extra fabric at the edge to trim off later.

I used a rotary cutter to cut the edges of the fabric right next to the edge of the shade and used "Fray Check" to prevent fraying. 

My little helpers enjoyed the process, although not comprehending what was wrong with the plain white shade. I am alone in my creative neurosis.

I used the same ribbon I hung the pictures with and hot glued it to the bottom of the shade. The ribbon was .99c for 4 yards at Michael's.

And the finished shades!

I am happy with the result. I made the pink curtains 5 years ago for Emma's nursery. I wanted to use them again, leaving only a few more sewing projects. I still need to make duvet covers for the girls' beds. But one project at a time, this room is getting done. I won't let myself start on the baby's room until I finish all my other projects. I can't wait to show the girls' whole room! It is turning out really cute.