Can anyone help with lining blinds/curtains?

[DaisySteiner]

I'm planning to make a Roman blind for the kids' room and it's slightly doing my head in as to how to do the linings as I keep reading different instructions!

So, I want to line them, but with a few cms of the patterned fabric visible on the back iyswim, but I'm unsure as to how to work out what size to cut the patterned fabric and lining fabric.

Say I want 2cm of patterned fabric visible on the back of the blind, assuming 1cm seam allowances, how much bigger than the width of the blind should I cut the patterned fabric and how much smaller should the lining fabric be?

Aaagh, think I know how to do it, but want someone to confirm before I drive myself crazy (and potentially ruin all my fabric!)

Hopeful bump....

hooray i actually know the answer, having just done this using a kit from john lewis! the instructions are:

cut the lining fabric to exactly the width you want the blind to be. Add five cm to the width for the main fabric.

Pin along one side with the lining face down on the main fabric and edges diretly on tops of eah other and sew 1 cm from the edge, then pin other edges together and sew 1 cm from that edge. Turn it inside out and iron it flat from the lining side, making sure the lining is central (you could pin it at a few points). This should give roughly 2cm of fabric visible on the back on either side and allows for about 1 cm 'loss' in the turning.

oops that should say "directly on top of each other"

Thanks!! So did it work when you did it this way?! I'm really nervous having got into a bit of a mess with lining curtains in the past. Am I right in thinking that the key thing is to make sure that the fabrics all the edges are totally straight and squared off properly when you cut?

Would you not add an extra 6 cms to width, allowing 1cm seam plus 2cm visible, is extra 3 each side, and an extra 3 to length as surely you would want the same at bottom

PlumBumMum, i can see what you are saying, the edges are more like 1.5 cm either side. I am quoting directly from the instructions and when i did it this way it has worked really well, in that there is a nice overlap either side and the blinds are the correct width.

For mine the lining and main fabric are cut the same length. I allowed 10 cm extra in total compared with the final length (this was plenty)

the top and bottom don't need the same treatment

For the bottom, the kit i used allows for a large hem rolled up at the bottom that you can put a bar in to weight it, so it says to roll up 1cm of the lining and fabric and iron flat, then roll both up again 4cm and stitch through to the front, so you have a 4cm channel for the bottom bar.

In terms of the top, it really depends on how you are fixing to the window. The kit has a baton for fixing to the window and then velcro strips to fix to the baton and blind. so the back of the top will not show as that's where its fixed

what i did was do all of the other sewing, so edges, pockets for the rods, bottom hem. then I measured the length again and turned over a 1.5 cm hem at the top and sewed the velcro over the top of that so it is hidden.

Daisy - yes, its v important to get the cutting square. I hope this all makes sense!

by my maths, if you allowed 3cm either side on the main fabric, you wold need to make the lining 1cm less than the final width to ensure the blind didn't end up too wide.

Daisy listen to KSal as I'm like you and afraid to do it, I'm working from my head,

KSal I have a pile of curtains to do for my caravan if I get stuck I will be giving you a shout out

I know what you mean PBM, the measurements don't quite make sense to me, but if John Lewis and Ksal say it works, that's good enough for me Will let you know how I get on when the fabric arrives

hope it works out!!

Thought I'd just update - I finished my blind earlier in the week and it looks really good, I'm dead chuffed with myself! If I did it again (which I will) I would make the main fabric a bit bigger and the lining fabric a bit smaller as I would have liked slightly more of the main fabric on the back, but it's really no big deal at all.

The blind kit was really good too - I got it from eBay and it was a fair bit cheaper than John Lewis, plus they even cut the track and poles to size for me! It came with a long piece of wood (for protection in the post I would imagine) but this worked brilliantly as an extra long ruler for making sure I got all the sides straight!

Thanks again for your help KSal and PBM.