DIY No-Sew Roman Shade

At the far end of our house, there is a door to our backyard.  And on that door there is a window (e i e i o...anyone?!?).  Well, said window has been covered with very bulky faux wood blinds since we moved in...the same faux woods blinds that are on every other window in our house.  And while they work on every other window (for the most part), long ago I had decided a roman shade would be a much better fit on this little window.
I had seen tons of tutorials for faux roman shades using dowel rods, tension rods, etc, but unfortunately I knew my paranoid hubby would want something that actually closed instead of just looking like it would.  So I researched...and I came across tutorials using mine blinds.  At first, I kept looking because I didn't want to spend too much on this project, but one day at Home Depot I happened to come across mini blinds.  Do you know how much they are?!?  $4!!!!  Um, sold...they were in my basket faster than...I can't come up with a good analogy, but you get the idea.  I happily took them home.
Aside from the mini blinds, I only needed a yard of fabric (although my window was so small I could have probably gotten away with even less fabric) and my trusty glue gun for this little project.
With everything home and about an hour of time to spare, I got to work.  First...obviously... I removed all the old window hardware.  With it bare, I got to work on my mini blinds.  I don't know how many slats are on a set of mini blinds, but there are way more than the 4-5 I wanted.  So first step was to remove the unnecessary slats.  At the bottom there are two clips holding in the cords.  They need to be removed, although store them somewhere safe because you're going to need them again at the end.  The tutorial I had read said to cut the ladder cord, but to leave the pull cord (single string) alone.  Well, I had to cut both...at least at the bottom...in order to remove the extra slats.   At the top, though, be very careful to only cut away the ladder cord and keep the single pull cord in tact otherwise your blinds won't be able to raise and lower when you're done.  When I was all done with the cutting, ladder cord removal, and extra slat removal, my mini blinds looked like this.

With the mini blinds ready, it was time to get my fabric ready.  I measured the window width, added about an inch on each side (top and bottom too) and then cut that out of my yard of fabric.  I was out of iron-on hem tape, so I just used hot glue (seriously can I tell you how much I love hot glue) to hem up the extra inch on all four sides.  And once it was all nice and neat and ready, I laid the mini blinds on top of the fabric.

I guesstiamated that each slat was evenly spaced and then got to work using my oh-so-trusty glue gun to attach them to the fabric.  I used hot glue completely across each slat, except for taking special care not to glue down the pull cord on either side.
Once it was all done and had had time to dry, I put them back up on the window and stepped back to admire my handy work.

Such an easy project, and I am so happy with the results.  The fabric is such a happy addition to our hallway, and the extra light the window now lets in really brightens up that whole end of the house.  Oh, and it's totally a good thing, I went with a shade that could actually lower because, as predicted, Josh was down there making sure within two seconds of arriving home the first day it was up!