Three easy ways to make your own no-sew window treatments

Cladding your windows doesn’t seem like it should break the bank, but blinds, blinds, and curtains can get expensive fast. However, a serious DIY enthusiast can create simple — and inexpensive — window treatments with just a few hours of work. Old blinds can be reused

Making your own window dressing allows you to create something unique with something you really like and at a fraction of the cost of buying pre-made curtains or blinds.

How to make roman blinds without sewing

You can make your own no-sew roman blinds by repurposing an old set of blinds. If you have blinds that have seen better days, you’ll need scissors, fabric glue, 1 inch of fusible mesh tape, an iron, and a tape measure to get started. Measure your window length to size your fabric, then use the width of the blinds to measure the width. You should cut your fabric about a foot longer and three inches wider than your finished shade will be.

To calculate how many slats to keep from the original blinds, keep one slat for every 6 to 8 inches of window length. Remove all but the slats you need to place one every six to eight inches, usually about six or seven slats. Then use an iron to press a 1 inch fold around all four sides of your fabric and attach a strip of your 1 inch fusible tape and fold the edge over again and press the fold with your iron to create a hem . Once your hem is complete, place your blind over the shade and measure every 6 to 8 inches to spread the slats of the blind evenly over the surface of the fabric and use your fabric glue to secure them in place. Use your glue to attach the top edge of the fabric to the top of the blinds and the bottom edge to the bottom of the blinds. Then you can hang your roman blind like a Venetian blind with the fabric side inwards in your window.

Here’s a video tutorial you can watch before you start:

How to make patterned curtains without sewing

To make curtains with a pattern, you can get relatively cheap plain fabric and use a stencil to paint your own pattern with fabric paint. To make this type of curtain you will also need some hot melt tape, scissors, a tape measure and an iron. Measure your window opening, then add a foot in length and a foot in width to each panel for fullness. If you’re only using one panel for a window instead of two, you should add two feet to your width instead of one. Add a hem on three sides of each panel using the method above. Then fold along the top edge 1″ and press, then fold down 1″ and use the fusible netting tape to fuse the bottom edge of the fold to create a pocket for the curtain rod.

Once your panels are made you can use your fabric paint and stencil to create your pattern. When stenciling fabric, make sure you place a cloth, tarp, or piece of disposable cardboard underneath so it doesn’t bleed onto the surface you’re working on.

How to make no-sew curtain tape

To make a simple ribbon curtain, you can use unwired ribbon of any color and some craft or fabric glue. Calculate the amount of tape you’ll need by measuring the width and length of your window opening, then adding a few inches to the length and six inches to the width. To calculate how many strands you need, take the width of the curtain and divide it by the width of the ribbon: For example, if you have a 30 inch wide curtain and are working with a 2 inch wide ribbon, you will need 15 ribbons. Then if your window is 30 inches high you will need 15 ribbons at 30 inches or 450 inches of ribbon – that’s about 10.06m of ribbon.

Once you have measured your ribbon strands, you can cut them to length, fold over the top edge of each strand to form a two inch loop, and glue the loop in place. Then thread the ribbon strands onto a curtain rod and hang your new ribbon curtain.