Ladies, if you do have any old mini-blinds that just don't look good any longer, give this a try. The hardest part is deciding on which fabric to use. That took me over a month to select.
Even if you don't currently have mini-blinds, there are plenty out there that are super cheap and worth buying to take apart and do this. After all, I've looked at the most inexpensive Roman Shades I could find. For the smallest size, in either a cream, tan, brown....basically just a plain solid color....they were approx. $20. This is not for a nice Roman Shade. I made one shade and didn't spend a penny. I already had some leftover upholstery fabric, the mini-blind and glue. If I had to buy the mini-blind, it would have cost me approx. $7.
For the others, I bought the fabric on sale at Fabric.com. Very inexpensive and I got free shipping, so I only paid for the fabric. For the most expensive fabric, I paid just under $17 per shade (I needed 3 for my bedroom) and they are custom because I got the fabric I wanted and it matches the bedroom. The one I showed you all was only $7/yd and I used less than a yard per window. If I had to buy a mini-blind, each one still would have been $14/window and much less than the cheapest roman shades I could buy.
I'm very cheap, won't buy anything if I think I can make it myself easier or in a less expensive way. I'm telling everyone about this because if anyone wants roman shades, here is the way to go about it.