Roman blinds with border

[Pip]

I'm making a set of 3 roman blinds for a bay window, each blind will have a border at each side and across the bottom. The middle blind is wider than the outer blinds and I want to make sure the blinds look balanced..

My question: Shall I use equal sized strips for the border or decide the size of the border by calculating an a percentage of fabric for each blind.. example: 30% of the width of each blind is made in the contrasting border. I have already decided to use a percentage of the width.. But would like your thoughts on this.

Thank you!

Philip

[Louise]

Re: Roman blinds with border

I would make all the borders the same size - personally I think it would look odd to have different width borders adjacent to each other where the blinds meet.

[Schuhby]

Re: Roman blinds with border

The blinds in the picture below use different size strips due to width difference.. This is why I'm thinking of using the percentage.

[attachment=0:230ho5h0]2cd7_1.JPG[/attachment:230ho5h0]

[Louise]

Re: Roman blinds with border

Still not convinced......

[Sharon]

Re: Roman blinds with border

Me neither, i would prefer to make all the same....
sharon

[jane]

Re: Roman blinds with border

I think I'd go with same size borders too.

[enid]

Re: Roman blinds with border

Rocking the boat a bit here, first reaction was to balance the whole thing by making the border on the larger one in proportion to its size, as the smaller ones will be to theirs, but it might depend on the fabric and the overall effect.
Think you might have to play a bit on this, cut it all out and pin on the table to see what it looks like.
Time consuming I know but sometimes the eye can be so deceiving. Gut reaction to what you see.

Enid

[thecurtainmaker]

Re: Roman blinds with border

Hi Philip,
I would make all the borders the same width as well. It's sort of the same principle as having different length poles in a room all the same diameter!
Regards
Pen.

[MyDecozo]

Re: Roman blinds with border

Thank you all for your posts - I have a situation were by the side blinds are only 45cm wide so If I have all the same size borders I will either have very small borders on the larger blind, or very little main fabric on the smaller blinds... So I feel a 30% of the width better. I'll make the middle blind first and work from there... Will post with the outcome.

Philip

[enid]

Re: Roman blinds with border

Pen, is that not the same principle as having different width romans but all the same drop?

Not trying to be funny, but one could end up with broad borders on a skinny width roman or narrow borders on a broad roman and vice versa. I think thats what I mean.

Its all in the visual effect of the completed job.

By the time I posted this, the man had made his decision but I'm posting anyway.

Enid

[jane]

Re: Roman blinds with border

I'm about to make 3 blinds, all with a 27cm border along the bottom. If I make the blinds the way I usually do, the border won't be visible until the blind is fully down. They'll be pulled up most of the time which means the lovely (& very expensive) fabric border won't be seen most of the time. Has anyone made a blind where the bottom border shows even when the blinds are up? Does it look OK? How did you calculate the folds?

[Schuhby]

Re: Roman blinds with border

Jane I would suggest you make the blinds around the border and calculate so the border is visible at all times - Add your border and calculate the folds from just below the seam line. If your finished border measures 27, minus 26 off the length and use the remaining fabric for folds. You could play around with a length of scrap fabric.

Treat the border as you would a shaped bottom.

Philip

[Angie]

Re: Roman blinds with border

If you want the border visible all the time, instead of allowing, say 1cm visible at the bottom, allow 27cm. I would normally deduct 6cm for the top and bottom (5 at the top and 1 at the bottom) and then work out the spacing, so in this case I would deduct 5 + 27 = 32.

This will obviously mean that the blind cannot be pulled up as far as normal, and you may want to compromise, say have about 15cm of the border showing. The proportions will depend on the length of the blind, and how much the client wants to see of the border when the blinds are up.

Angie

[Tam]

Re: Roman blinds with border

Hi Jane.

I have recently done this as I had attached an applique border to a roman blind and wanted to see the detail when it was in the up position.

How I did it ( thanks to pips advise) was to take your finished drop less headrail depth then take off the amount you want to see at the bottom lower edge and find your final figure. divide the roman blind as normal then add on what you took off for the bottom lower edge to the first fold.

did that make sense
example

170cm drop less headrail allowance of 5cm less 10cm bottom edge = 155cm divide this amount by 7 =22.1
then add your 10cm to 22.1cm to the bottom fold allowance = 32.1

bottom of blind to 1st rod pocket = 32.1

2nd rod pocket = 76.3

3rd rod pocket=120.5


Hope that made sense???

Alter to your own calculations but dont forget to add on the allowance you want to see hanging at the bottom when the blind is in the dressed position to the first pocket allowance!

[suel]

Re: Roman blinds with border

I have made blinds with borders for bay windows on quite a few occasions. To be honest I have never given the size in relation to the size of the blind any thought, and have always made them all the same size. However on a very narrow blind, there would be a danger of them looking all border and no centre fabric. I think a 7cm border is probably about right for all the blinds. If I was in doubt I would get the client to confirm.

Re bottom edge borders. Yes, I usually add approximately 3cm to the usual size of the bottom fold to have at least some of the contrast showing. Again I would ask the client to confirm, but in the same way as a shaped contrast bottom would need to be displayed, I would add extra for that also depending on the size of the shape of contrast bottom.

Contrast top edges are always a bit tricky and there is no room for error at all when cutting out and piecing it all together.

Sue.