Off-White Plastic Batten - 3-ft length

Most directions for making Roman shades do not include placing battens in the fold lines. Most Roman shade also "bunch-up" when you raise them and require "training" so that they fold cleanly. If you use battens in the fold lines,your shades will fold up perfectly, even the first time you raise them. Battens also allow you to space your lift lines much further apart than normal. Instead of the standard 6" to 10" spacing, there can be as much as 20" between lift ring columns. That means you have to sew on a lot fewer rings.

These plastic battens are quite small (just under 1/4" in diameter). This helps to decrease the amount the shade projects when folded up. In fact, you can hardly tell the difference between a shade with no battens and one with 8 to 12 battens. Remember, the "Up Fold" battens and the "Down Fold" battens stack in different locations. If you have 12 battens total, you will stack only 6 on top of each other when the shade is raised.

I highly recommend you watch two videos that explain the benefit of internal battens. The first is Part 1 of the How to Make a Classic Roman Shade series. The second is a very short video showing how to add internal battens to an existing shade. For complete written directions on attaching your battens inside your shade, see the Attach Internal Battens page in the Instructions Section.

A Comment on Other Types of Battens
You can use a wooden dowel rod instead of a plastic batten. These are available in your local hardware store. Get the 3/16" diameter ones, which come in 3-ft and 4-ft lengths. Don't use a 1/8" diameter dowel, it will break. You could use a 1/4" diameter wood dowel if you don't have too many folds.

Why I prefer plastic battens to wooden ones

• They come in a longer length (up to 60" for the plastic ones, 48" maximum for the wood ones).
• You can join the plastic battens using a batten splint [Item PBSP] for wider shades. The widest shade I made was 174" and it didn't sag!
• The wooden dowels absorb moisture and warp with time, even in a dry climate
• The wooden dowels sometimes break when you turn the shade right-side out after gluing them into the shade.

The wooden dowels are less expensive than the plastic ribs, so if you are making a narrow shade and don't live in a particularly huimid climate, go ahead and use them. They are much preferrable to not using internal battens.

We don't cut the plastic battens for you since you should sew your shade first and then measure the actual width of your shade. Fabric is not perfect and your actual shade width will be different from the planned width. Even a 1/8" difference will matter since you will be cutting your battens only 1/2" shorter than the shade width. The battens are easy to cut using kitchen shears, wire cutters or wire strippers.