What To Do When Your Neighbors Have Flood Lights Shining in Your Windows

This is my first experience fabricating a Coulisse Top Down Bottom Up Roman Shade.

and I loved it! I am impressed with the elegance and ease of operation. In this post I will show you my fabrication method I used that prevents those pesky pin holes of light. I am so excited about it that I couldn't wait for installation to share it with you!

Three photos above:

The lift system came packaged very nicely with protective film covering the front of the head rail. There is a clutch and bead chain at each end - one for up and one for down. Because each cord needs 2 spools, the number of cords that will fit into the head rail is limited for each size. My finished width is 46.5" so I have 4 lift cords. I typically prefer 5 lift cords so I used shade ribs to keep it folding up nicely.

This shade is interlined with heavy flannel interlining and blackout lined. I placed my interlining on the wrong side of the face fabric. Because there are only 4 cords, I stitched each shade rib to the face fabric in 7 places so that the fabric won't sag in between the cords. A curved needle makes it easy!

Three photos above:

I do my side hems differently. I fold over about 3 inches just once instead of a double hem. Then I placed the blackout lining right side up on the interlining covering the shade ribs. I do the same for the lining. It makes a flatter side hem. The sewn on rings will hold the hem in place so I don't sew the hem closed.

Two photos above:

Now that the blackout lining is smoothed over the interlining, I stitched on my rings. (I prefer metal rings.) Using a curved needle, I went under the shade rib but didn't catch the interlining or face fabric. I used buttonhole thread from Wawak.

This is the key to preventing pin holes of light - two separate layers that are independently stitched with only the shade ribs in common.

With the lining and rings in place, I inserted the weight bar in the bottom hem (1.5" double) and hand stitched the hem closed.

Two photos above:

After the rings were sewn on and the bottom hem was finished, I ran the cord through the rings and Safe T Shade ring locks. Below the last ring and ring lock, I added a shade leveler that I can be adjusted after the shade is installed.

Two photos above:

At the top hem (1.5" double) I applied the soft sided Velcro to the very top of the shade.

The photo on the right photo shows the back of the lift system with all of the cords.

Three photos above:

This is the top rail with the rough sided Velcro. The last step is to attach the top of the shade onto the Velcro rail. The end photo shows the shade lowered from the top.

And that's just how easy it is to fabricate a TDBU roman shade with the Coulisse lift system.

Below is a photo of the back of the finished shade ready for installation.

RM