Making a Roman to pattern

[Karen C]

Has anyone ever made a roman to incorporate the pattern?

I have a client that would like a row of roses showing on the bottom of each fold of the roman when up but she only wants the overall length of the blind to be approx 30cm when up. I have tried and tried to get this to work and I can't! Has anyone ever done this, is it achieveable or am I wasting my time and should I just make it up the best I can get with the pattern?

[nic]

Re: Making a Roman to pattern

So, a cascade blind, then? What's the pattern repeat?

[Karen C]

Re: Making a Roman to pattern

Hi Nic,

The client wants a normal folding roman just with the bottom edge showing hanging down a little more as it is in a contrast colour. The pattern repeat is 28.5cm.

[jane]

Re: Making a Roman to pattern

what's the overall length of the blind Karen?

[nic]

Re: Making a Roman to pattern

Um, narrower folds than normal, and never pulled up fully, then, just to the depth she likes.

Work out pocket spacing on the mid point of the pattern repeat.
I'd be doing a lot of folding and pinning, but I'm not the best person to be advising you, as I loath making Romans and have very little confidence in my abilities, although no-one's ever come back and said" 'ere, you, this is rubbish", at least, not yet.

I'm sure the blind experts will come in out of their gardens soon. I think it's doable, in an unorthodox way, perhaps.

[Karen C]

Re: Making a Roman to pattern

Thanks for your advice Nic.

Jane the overall length of the blind is 140cm

[jane]

Re: Making a Roman to pattern

Haven't actually tried this out with a bit of fabric so not entirely sure if it'll work but.....you said you want the last half fold hanging below the rest of the blind as it'll have a contrast fabric so.......

could you have 4 whole folds of 28.5cm (so the pattern repeat is in the same place each fold) then add extra to the top "section" to cover the batten (6cm)
then make the bottom half fold half of the repeat (14.25cm) + the remainder of the length (5.7cm) in the contrast fabric

34.5cm + 3 x 28.5cm + 14.25 + 5.7 = 140cm

If 5.7cm contrast at the bottom is too much, you could reduce that & increase the allowance at the top a bit.

Hope that makes sense !

[thecurtainmaker]

Re: Making a Roman to pattern

Decide on how much of the hem edge you want showing when the blind is up. Deduct this amount and the depth of the headrail from the finished length, then the remainder is the amount to be taken up into the folds.

Divide by an odd number (5, 7, 9 etc) until you get to the desired drop of the raised blind when you add the above measurements back on.

e.g. the finished blind is 120cm, the amount to hang below at the bottom is 5cm and the headrail is 5cm. Deduct these from the finished length and there is 110cm to take up into the folds.

110/9 = 12.2. Add the two lots of 5cm from above and the drop of the raised blind will be 22.2cm.

measure up (12.2+5cm) from the bottom hem, then for the the folds measure up (12.2x2) for each fold.

you can use this method if you have a shaped bottom edge that you want to be on show when the blind is raised.

Regards
Pen

[jane]

Re: Making a Roman to pattern

I like your method for working out the pleats Pen. Presumably in this case, you'd need to adjust the top & bottom amount so each fold is 28.5 (2 x 14.25) for the pattern repeat ?

[thecurtainmaker]

Re: Making a Roman to pattern

Yes, for a finished drop of 140cm with 5cm headrail and 5cm bottom edge to show,

140-10 = 130 to be taken up in the pleats

130/9=14.4 (this will give 4 folds)

So the bottom fold will be 19.4 and the remainder 28.8 with the extra 5cm at the top.