My wonderful friends at the Bear Market in downtown McKinney, TX gave me a much needed lampshade. If you follow my future blogs (this is my first crafty blog) you will see that I buy very little “new” stuff. I love to make do with what I have, what I can find at a garage sale or the Thrift store. By the way, McKinney has the most awesome thrift store I have ever shopped at!
I had this cool spongeware lamp that had no shade. I really don’t like most new lampshades or what you can purchase at the store not to mention the ridiculous price you have to pay for them! So, I decided to take the trashy shade that had the lining torn up and turn it into the perfect complement for my lamp.
We recently retrieved our furniture from storage and now I’m trying to put together my prim household. I just know this lamp will be perfect with a little assistance. Here is a picture of my lamp with the trashy shade.
I had this cool spongeware lamp that had no shade. I really don’t like most new lampshades or what you can purchase at the store not to mention the ridiculous price you have to pay for them! So, I decided to take the trashy shade that had the lining torn up and turn it into the perfect complement for my lamp.
We recently retrieved our furniture from storage and now I’m trying to put together my prim household. I just know this lamp will be perfect with a little assistance. Here is a picture of my lamp with the trashy shade.
The lining was torn so I went ahead and ripped the rest of it out leaving the seams around the edges that hold it all together.
I wrapped the shade with a piece of leftover lightweight denim. This is just a "play with it" process. I put just a few pins in until I can tell what fabric I need and then I cut the rest off leaving enough to tuck under for a neat finish.
My denim (and later lace) was a bit wrinkled so I whipped out my handy dandy ironing board that fits on my sewing table. I HATE dragging out the big ironing board for a little project.
After ironing the denim I put it back over the shade and pinned it in place. You can NEVER use too many pins! I've noticed one little issue I'm going to have to deal with shortly. My fabric doesn't overlap much at the top edge where the seams come together. I know its all going to be covered with lace later so I think I can make it work.
More fitting and pinning. This is a very important step!
Ok, all pinned up. Now, I put it back on the lamp to make sure the final look is what I had in mind and so far, so good! I think its gonna be great!
Here's that little boo-boo I mentioned. My lamp is going to be a head level in a corner so I know no one will see it and I think I can mostly cover it with lace.
I had enough fabric to tuck under the edges about an inch or so.
Now, I know just how it will look finished.
Time to trim off the edges and get the glue gun plugged in and ready! I slightly lifted the seams all around and hot glued them in place. This goes for the inside edges too. I'm not too worried about the edges because I plan to cover those with lace.
I hate for rough edges to show so I had a little lace strip I decided to glue to the base and the top of the lamp over the seam edge (after I had glued the edge to the lampshade). Since my lamp will be a bit high in the room, I know someone sitting on the sofa could probably see under the shade so I want the edges to be pretty.
Glue, glue, glue! Looks so pretty when finished.
Now comes the fun part! I have 2 big drawers of lace and doilies. Time to try some on. Again, get out the pins. Its much easier to undo pins than undo glue when you don't like the final look!
Here's my first try. I'm really not feeling it so I took it all off.
Much better! I had originally planned to cover the entire shade with lace but decided that this works just as well and why waste my precious lace on the back of a shade that no one will ever see. :-)
I can't seem to figure out when to stop. I usually have to just yell at myself "ENOUGH"! I actually messed it up a bit because I added 4 vintage buttons to the little whirlies in the center but they looked really stupid. Oh, I should also mention I GLUED them on and then when I started pulling them off, my vintage buttons fell apart in my hand. sniff, sniff...
So, I had this little pink rose doiley I had cut up to apply the little rose parts to a little girl's dress. I had a few left over so I put one in the center to cover my glue gob from my mistake. I also had a crystal button which I put right in the center. Added a few more buttons and then had the "ENOUGH' yell and called it good.
Here is my lamp in its forever (for now) home. I really like how it turned out.
A close up of the finished shade.
thats A lovely lamp. I am kinda poor but I would spend $20 on that lamp instead of going to the salvation amry store and buying one for $5.
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