In the middle of the blinds is a 3-layer composite – a ‘mylar sandwich’ with thinsulate in the middle. We glue it together from huge rolls & sew it into blinds in the She Shed. The offcuts of the ‘sandwich’ are are often large but not wasted, we use them as packaging to protect the blinds in transit. It struck me as wasteful to use such a high tech product just once in this way.

Mylar is ‘space blanket’, often used as emergency blankets, and thinsulate is used for polar gloves, so the offcuts are ideal for warm & lightweight sleeping mats, clothing or protection from cold & damp.

We now stitch the edges of the larger offcuts and give them as multi-purpose mats / blankets to the Refugee Action in Somerset East (RAISE). (Facebook page). They are a group who coordinate ongoing support to refugees around the world. They meet every Monday afternoon at ‘Your Storage Space’ in Frome to sort through items and arrange delivery. Some suitable items go to Calais, others to Syria, working with RAFT in Taunton. (Facebook page). Here is a list of their achievements.

There is a long list of items needed on the website. At the moment men’s gloves, hats, scarves, socks and pants are priorities but also blankets, clothes for women and children, travel cots, walking aids, toiletries, and cold remedies.

Someone asked the other day how to clean a red blind in a bathroom if it were to be stained with soap or toothpaste marks. So we decided to go one step further & test for pencil, pen & lipstick too, using a variety of cleaning methods. Here are the results.

Because the blinds have 25 components, one of which is a sewn-in aluminium bar along the bottom edge, they are not ideal for dry cleaning, though that is certainly a possibility. Bespoke curtains often must not be washed at all as they can shrink badly, & makers tend to recommend just vacuuming them. But our blinds are more robust than this so we plastered on the offending products, left them for 3 days to mature & then tested several cleaning methods.

First step was to take a rubber to the pencil & pen marks. This removed the majority of the pencil and some of the pen (middle sample below).

We then washed the face of all but one of the samples with a biological washing liquid (right sample above). This was applied with a sponge and rubbed pretty vigorously. Finally on one sample we used spray cleaner & on another sugar soap!

Here you see the results, from left to right;

1. Control, 2. spray cleaner only, 3. rubber, washing liquid then sugar soap, 4. rubber, washing liquid, 5. rubber, washing liquid then spray cleaner, 6. control.

So as you can see lipstick is the major offender, it almost comes off on sample 5 but could have been successful if tackled immediately. All the other stains can be removed, starting with a simple rubber on pen or pencil, then scrub wash & finally use a spray cleaner if necessary. Don’t use sugar soap!

Now our roman blinds are an established product we’ve turned our attention to other types of windows with both thermal and blackout problems. With a combination of magnets, velcro & ingenuity we have several solutions which might help your own problem windows and doors.

There are several ways of attaching, folding & fixing suitable for; narrowboats, unusual windows, door panels, velux windows, campervans and more. Here are some of our ideas.

These are mostly simple panels with hidden secrets – we can use velcro, magnets or a combination of both, with fibreglass rods for stiffness if required.

The velux solution is a combination of velcro in the top half of the window, magnets in the bottom half & a tab tie so you can roll it right up. So the halfway-open solution is fast & easy, just clicks open & closed.

Velux blind – left: front with magnets, right: roll & velcro for fully up

Left: fitting the velcro, right: blind half-up held with magnets

Continue reading →

We will be showing our thermal blinds at four one-day shows in the next month – come & see us in Highgate, Bath, Frome or Wells;

1. Saturday 13th September, Highgate, London. 21st Century Homes. 11am – 4.30pm, Channing School, The Bank N6 5HF.

2. Sunday 14th September, Bath. Bath Home Improvement Fair. 12 noon – 4pm, The Guildhall, Bath.

3. Sunday 14th September, Frome. One Planet Sunday. 10am – 4pm, Cheese & Grain, Frome.

4. Saturday 27th September, Wells. Transition Wells Energy Day. 10am – 4pm, Wells Town Hall.