Thursday, March 29, 2012

Never Underestimate the Power of a Hot Glue Gun

A couple of weeks ago, I came across this tutorial for Fabric Covered Roller Shades on Pinterest. I immediately pinned it to my Project Airstream board because I knew it was the perfect solution to replace the hideous 1970's wall to wall curtains that we took out of our Airstream. I kept the idea for those cute fabric covered roller shades in the back of my mind, and on one of the many days that we were shopping at Lowes last month I decided to grab a few of the cheap vinyl roller shades and experiment. 

Now if you can't tell from the title of this post, I did NOT start out using my hot glue gun first. Honestly I thought  for sure that the hot glue would melt the vinyl and make a huge mess. So I kept my trusty hot glue gun in the drawer and tried a few other things.




My first attempt was with spray adhesive {yes I know it's number 2 in the picture, but it was the one I tried first}. It was a major FAIL! The spray adhesive was way too sticky and it was nearly impossible to get the fabric attached to the shade without a ton a wrinkles. I sprayed the fabric and carefully placed it onto a scrap piece of roller shade, but it was really crooked and wrinkled. So I tried to reposistion it....and it just went downhill from there. Needless to say, spray adhesive is not the way to go when making fabric covered roller shades!

After the spray adhesive failed, I did a little more research and found a couple of people who said they used fabric glue. So I picked up a big bottle {for $12} at the fabric store, and came home all excited to make this project work the second time around. I was so sure that the fabric glue was going to work that I started with the actual shade and not a scrap. The only problem was that I think I was a little too excited because I used way too much fabric glue, which then soak through my fabric and left a gross dried glue film all the way up both sides of my roller shade...not a pretty look. I attempted to salvage the roller shade by covering the edges with some white ribbon, and it turned out okay. But I was not going to take the time to line all the edges of the {7 other} roller shades with ribbon...so it was on to plan C!

Plan C included my trusty hot glue gun {who I should probably apologize to for doubting}! I pulled out a scrap piece of roller shade, plugged in my hot glue gun, and decided that even if it instantly melted a huge hole right through the darn roller shade that I was at least going to give it a try! And surprise, surprise it worked! No melted hole, no soaking through the fabric, no weird dried glue film....just a perfectly attached piece of fabric! 

As of now I don't have a single shade finished and hanging to share with you, but I do at least know HOW I'm going to go about doing it now! And hopefully this post will help anybody who is thinking about making a cute {but not nearly as simple as it seems} Fabric Covered Roller Shade. When I do get all my roller shades covered and hanging in the Airstream, I will be sure to share a few pictures. And just in case you missed it, the moral of the story today is "Never Underestimate the Power of a Hot Glue Gun"!

Linking up here..
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10 comments:

  1. I love the trial and error!
    I also have doubted my glue gun from time to time, only to find out that I am an idiot.
    My only question pertaining to your project, is: are you worried that when your cute curtains are in the ol' Airstream that the heat from the sun will cause issues with the glue?!?

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  2. Great idea! We love the glue gun too around here! :)

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  3. If at first you don't succeed...Glad you got it worked out! Looking forward to seeing them hung.

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  4. I bought my first hot glue gun around this time last year, when I copied your Easter baskets and made some for my boys. I'm still a little scared of my hot glue gun. ;-)

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  5. I have been wanting to try this for awhile...my glue gun and I have a love hate relationship, I love it and it likes to burn the finger prints off my fingers...but if it works for a cute shade, it would be worth it!:)

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  6. Hot glue gun to the rescue!!! :) I can't wait to see the finished product, Kelli!

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  7. I agree!! I don't even craft much, and I use that handy dandy glue gun now and again too!!!

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  8. I saw a DIY home decorating show once that used liquid starch to cover a wall with fabric. I wonder if that would work for your shades?

    I love my glue gun! In fact, I need a new one!

    Good luck!

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  9. Good to know!! I am awful at using glue and fabric...I can't ever seem to line anything up correctly. :s

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  10. LOve my gluegun and I am not ashamed to admit I have hemmed my pants when I needed to go out for the night and didnt want to take out the sewing machine...I love my glue gun

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