Monday, October 12, 2009

Making Of - Brooklyn's Balloon Shade

I have been asked how I made Brooklyn's balloon shade in her nursery, so I hope I can explain it well enough for everyone to understand. This is such a simple window treatment to make and I think it is such a cute alternative to the standard nursery valance that usually comes with the crib bedding sets.

I did not have my blog started when I made this so I don't have step-by-step pictures.

*The first thing that you need to do is measure your window. My window was pretty much a perfect square window I believe at 47". Since my fabric was only 45" wide, I had to purchase more fabric and lay it lengthwise to fit. I cut 2 separate pieces, one that is on the top above the ribbons, and the main full piece. I wanted it to hang about 2" over on the sides and the bottom to make sure that is blocked out sunlight, so I measured an extra 2" on each side plus an additional 1 1/2" - 2" for the hem on the back. The top piece needs to be an additional 4" for the rod pocket on the very top. The fabric I used was a flannel type fabric, I wanted something that didn't wrinkle terribly when tied it up.

*I wanted my shade lined for black out purposes for naps so I measured the liner 1/2"-1" shorter on each side so that the hem wasn't to bulky when folded back and sewn.
*I bought 2 spools of 12' ribbon and just used one roll for each side.

SEWING
*Take the large bottom piece and lay the liner on the back side of the fabric.
*Take the ribbon off of the spool and fold in half, mark with a pin. Do this to both spools of ribbon.
*On your main fabric, measure in about 12"-14" from the sides and pin the ribbon on the top of fabric at the center point where you pinned earlier.
*Place the smaller fabric (that is the top section) on top of the main fabric and ribbon. (Half of your ribbon should be hanging out the back side.
*Sew straight across.
* Hem the 2 sides and the bottom, folding over about a half an inch and then folding over again so give it a cleaner look. Sew
*After the sides and bottom are sewn, fold the top down a half an inch and then approximately 3"-4" and sew straight across, this will create the pocket for the rod to go through.
*I bought a cheap $5 rod at Walmart, this is just a real skinny one. I knew it would be covered by the cornice box.
This is such a simple project, it probably sounds more difficult than it really is. I hope I explained it alright. In the future when I make treatments, I will either take pictures of the steps, or I will make a video of what I do.

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