January 18, 2010

lampshade upgrade

Sorry this is a day late.... technical difficulties which I really do not want to go into, but let's just say it involves me and television and possibly drinking massive amounts of coffee which resulted in an inability to focus....... yes.....


Anywho, I present my weekend project: recovering an old lampshade with a fun new print!
1. Here is my old lampshade. It is a pretty houndstooth fabric, but is so dense that light doesn't shine through very well. Plus this lampshade has suffered a previously failed attempt at recovering (it is covered in dried glue....) I simply took a pair of scissors and cut off the fabric at both ends.
2. Lay the old fabric on top of your new fabric I just happened to have some lovely Amy Butler fabric lying around) to create a pattern to cut.

3.  Leave a 1/2 inch border of the new fabric when you cut so that you have room to fold the fabric for a clean edge.




4. Fold the half inch of extra fabric down, and wrap the fabric tightly around the old lampshade frame. Then, grab your glue gun, and begin gluing the new fabric onto the old lampshade frame (be sure to pull the fabric taught to eliminate wrinkles).


5. Once you wrap the fabric around both ends of the lampshade, fold and glue the edge of the fabric where the two ends of fabric meet, forming a clean seam.
6. The end! Not the best tutorial (I didn't document the process very thoroughly) but, the lampshade adds some fun color to the corner of my dining room!

I guess I really posted this to show that it doesn't matter what project you have in mind, the best way to figure out how to make something happen is to just jump in and do it! If you make a mistake, it really doesn't matter, because at least you are being proactive and attempting something new!
Oh, and Wallace wanted to say hello!

Have a great night!