I am so pumped! I went from having no clue what to do for window treatments in the Guest Room, to having the best idea ever! Thank you so much to our awesome blog friends that gave us suggestions in the comments of our last post. A few of you suggested Roman Shades, something I hadn't considered at all, then an awesome idea popped in my head!
Make Roman Shades out of vintage grain sacks! Genius!
A few weeks ago on one of my antiquing adventures I picked up 2 matching vintage grain sacks from Staples Mill Antiques in Stillwater. The price for each? Only $6.00!!! A total steal, especially for how clean and crisp they looked! I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them at the time, but I just had to have them because I loved their look. Roman Shades will be the perfect way to enjoy them!
Here is a look at them unfolded. They are practically identical except for a small ID number that is printed near the top of the sack, but I love those kind of details! They both say "MaGill and Co; Fargo Seed House; Fargo North Dakota"
The width of each grain sack is 18", so I plan to open up the side hem and unfold them, bringing the total width of each to 36". Sadly, the 2 windows in the Guest Room are not the same size. One measures 28" and the other 34". For these DIY Roman shades I'm not planning on placing the finished product inside the window frame as I'd like them to sit outside of the frame similar to the ones in the photo below. I think it will look great and I won't have to cut any excess fabric from the grain sack (I don't want to destroy these little vintage gems!).
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I am currently on the hunt for a good DIY tutorial on how to make these, so if anyone else out there knows of one let me know! I will also post a tutorial on how things go for me when I attempt to make them. Wish me luck!
Here are a few other Roman Shade photos I found that used linen-like or grain sack fabric. Aren't they just gorgeous!
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Just light, airy, and chic!
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Love! Love! Love!
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Special thanks to the DIY Showoff, At Home Alterations, and Pine Tree Home for their suggestion of Roman Shades! You guys are awesome! Thanks for getting me out of the decorating rut :)
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can't wait to see them! i bet it will be amazing!!
ReplyDelete(Katrina again. Perhaps I need to get my own computer...) What a great idea to use the grain sacks! I can't wait to see them finished! I have no sewing skills, so suggestions on the how-to from me. I do have a ton of towels that my grandmother made from flour sacks though. It's funny because she spent hours bleaching out the labels and now I go antiquing to find towels with the labels still visible!
ReplyDeleteI saw that someone had taken out of date 1" miniblinds and removed all but a few of the slats. They then layed the blind out and layed the material over it using fabric glue between the remaining slats and fabric and gluing the edges over. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteThat will be very cute and unique since you are using grain sacks. Cannot wait to see them. I think I have seen a tutorial in the blog world somewhere if I find it I will pass it along.
ReplyDeleteOk I found the blog that I saw the tutorial on hope it helps.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.centsationalgirl.com/2009/09/diy-roman-shade/
I used a no-sew diy roman shade plan from thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com, you just go to her search bar and type in roman shade. I used some thin material when I made mine, because it was summer and I didn't want to ruin expensive stuff if I didn't like how it turned out. I actually like them alot and can't wait for summer to get here so I can hang them back up. I will starch then though to make them not so limp. You just need your material, some iron-on seam tape, I used heat and bond, and some hooks. I supposed you could use fabric glue it you didn't have an almost 3 year old trying to "help". Good luck and can't wait to see how they turn out.
ReplyDeleteI just made some linen ones a itle differently. I wanmted mine to be on the inside of the window, because I have great old woodwork that I just painted white. I could explain it to you if you want to do it that way. It uses ties, instead of circles and cord.
ReplyDeleteYou can see them at homestory-anita.blogspot.com
GREAT idea using the feedsacks. I also made some for my kitchen, but I used old toweling with the red stripes on the sides.
Anita