Safety First - How to Sew Up Child Safe Blinds

Ensure that blinds you sew for your home are safe for small children and babies by following these guidelines.

In our latest issue we have a tutorial for sewing up a Roman Blind.  We'd like to add a few points to the article to ensure that if you have small children in your household (or visitors with small children - which includes just about everyone) you need to take extra precautions to ensure that your blinds do no pose a potential hazard to babies and small children.

The main issue is where there is a loop in the blind cord.  Removing the very serious risk of strangulation should not be taken lightly as very sadly many children have been injured or died as a result of becoming entangled in a blind cord.

If you are selling blinds they must conform with the new legislation on blind safety (enforcable by law).  We strongly suggest that you also take every precaution when making your own blinds to conform with this very sensible and life saving legislation.  Having read the very traumatic stories of parents who have lost children as a result of blind cords, we cannot stress this enough.

With the Roman blind pattern in our latest issue, to make the design 100% safe for small children and babies, it should be fitted with breakaway connectors cord safety retainers or cleats, never let a cord just dangle.

In point 23 of the tutorial in Issue 25 (page 61) where the instruction is to screw the cleat to the side of the recess.  Please ensure that this cleat does not allow the excess length on the cord to drop below the 1.5 metre safe level.

You should also fit a breakaway connector.  There is a video to show you how you can simply add this to your Roman Blind here.

Cords should also have a safety toggle and all the components for the blind should be from the same manufacturer to ensure it all works together. Take care with securely attaching the toggles as these of course could also be a choking hazard.

Guidelines for Sewing Up Child Safe Blinds

1. Breakaway connectors should be fitted to cords - these are NOT expensive, they are easy to fit and you can buy them online from sites like ebay and amazon (NO EXCUSES!)

2. Cords should be maintained at a minimum of 1.5 metres from floor level - not cleats but the excess cord, so you may need to place the cleat higher than you originally planned. Get a tap measure out and make them safe.

3. Cleats should be securely fixed to the wall and checked regularly, if the cleat has fallen off then your blind is unsafe until it is replaced.  Check all your blinds and replace cleats at the correct height.