Making/altering roller blinds

[KristinaM]

I need 3 blackout roller blinds for my childrens bedroom. I've used the Ikea ones in another room but they are 15cm too short for this room. I've looked online for others but all the ready mades go up to about 180cm or 200cm and I need a drop of 210cm. Obviously blackouts don't really work if you dont have them long enough! Custom made are a fortune.

I know you can blind kits online but I would still need to buy fabric and stiffener and they wouldnt be blackout.

Is there any way I could join a piece onto the Ikea ones? They are only £12 so it would be cheap to buy an extra one and add bits onto the other 3. But would I need to sew it or glue it? And how would i cover the join so it didnt look terrible? And should I add the piece at the bottom or the top? And would the join impede the roller mechanism?

Would it be possible to make it llok like roman blind somehow? Just a thought...I am rubbish at this sort of thing

Joining 2 roller blinds without it looking naff sounds very tricky to me.

But Nome de Plume, MNers are experts in anything tricky!!!

Lol, not this MNer !

I wondered about sticking on braid or trim of some sort to hide the join? It would have to be at the bottom.What do you think?

I suppose it would be poosible (how I don't know), and I guess you could put some pretty co-ordinating ribbon or something over the join. Not helpful, I know

x posts

Do you mean too short length wise ?

Do you mean too short length wise (drop) ?

I thought you meant width wise !

Great minds etc....

No width wise is fine, as windows are only 98cm wide. Blinds are too short not too narrow

Could you glue a length of contrasting fabric at the bottom and then cover the join with braid? It would mean that the bottom wouldn't be blackout, but it would be a way of getting around lengthening them. I don't think you would be able to add at the top unless you can easily take the blind off the roller mechanism.

I thought i would just glue on another piece of the same fabric from the "spare" blind. Just not sure if glueing would be secure enough or would it need to be sewn ( I dont have a machine)? And would the join plus the braid/trim impede the winding mechanism?

It should be fine to add another piece of blackout fabric at the bottom (has it got a piece of wood etc at the bottom to weigh it down? may need to do something about that) probably easier and better to glue it (blackout fabric doesn't usually fray) as it's tricky to try and stitch it and the stitches actally let some light through. It won't impede the roller mechanism, I usually don't wind it mine all the way up anyway.

So I would need to insert the extra piece above the baton and make two joins and cover them with some sort of trim??? Sounds feasible......

I wouldn't bother with the trim unless you want to make a "feature" of it, it'll just draw attention to it, especially if both the fabrics are the same.

Good luck!

double sided tape?