Monday, November 29, 2010

Lamp shade without spray adhesive .................... and a future project

 

Many people have posted about how to cover (plain white) lamp shades with fabric. And I thought I was going to follow their directions. I did roll the shade along a big piece of paper and trace it then cut out the fabric with enough margin to fold over top and bottom. But then I wanted to see how it looked so I thought I would just pin the back seam with a straight pin.

It took 3 tries to get the fabric even on the shade. And I was thinking, I am going to make a real mess trying to get the fabric on straight once I spray adhesive on the shade. I liked the look. A bit later I wondered what dh did with the spray adhesive so I could finish. But you know what? I decided to just fold over the top and bottom and glue right then and there. No spray adhesive on the body of the shade.

Skip this paragraph if you don't want details!: First I trimmed the seam at the top and bottom to be even. Then I turned over a little edge then folded down so I would have a finished edge and no threads. Held it together with clothes pins along the way. It took several steps as I waited for previous clothes-pinned parts to dry. Also I left a few inches the seam ends that were on top loose until I was ready to deal with the seam down the back. Finally I turned the long edge under and glued the back seam. Then I could do the last several inches of top and bottom. I held the middle of the seam with a straight pin and clothes pins at the top and bottom. (If you hot glue, don't pin, it probably wouldn't come out.) Do other people skip the spray adhesive? (I guess you could skip the pattern with adhesive, but I probably wouldn't want to do that.)

The bummer part is I (luckily) bought a whole yard of this fabric (54 inches wide) thinking I would do something else with what is left. The cuts were both through the line in the pattern that had birds! So I basically cut my shade out of the middle to get one of the birds on it.

Below is my grandpa's old rocker which I got from my mom's cellar yesterday. I've just done a preliminary cleaning. I'm planning to fix it up for my new woman cave. Any suggestions? I'd love to see pics of what other people have done with similar chairs. The lamp is also for/in my new room. I've not posted a lot lately because I have a lot of non showy projects going on that must be done to complete that room. I'm shooting for it to be presentable, though not done (I want to reupholster a recliner, that won't even be started), by December 7. (You can see my pale green walls, and my recliner with a drop cloth thrown on it in the lamp pic.)

 
Posted by Picasa

Thanks for looking.

I'm linking up to Lit and Laundry's Finished for Friday. Check out the other projects!

Kathy

9 comments:

  1. Good job on the shade. That chair is going to be great when you get it finished.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great job on the lampshade! And I think the chair, which is awesome, would look great painted cream and the seat done in a burlap or grain sack with some type of print on it. (You know the pillows people have done?) Have fun!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was glad to find another crafter who did it her way when the pattern didn't work. I've been working on various old (very old) unfinished projects recently and just sort of made up the how-to as I went along. I posted them at my blog a couple of days ago.

    I just scrolled through your entire blog. So much fun stuff here. I have a glass flower in my future.

    Nice to meet you,Kathy,
    Annie

    ReplyDelete
  4. The lampshade looks fantastic. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. The shade turned out great! I think it was worth cutting through the middle of the yard to get the bird like that.

    Thanks for linking up to Finished for Friday!

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a long time since your last post. Love the birds in your new blog. Lovely job you are doing with the lamp and that wonderful chair.
    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

    ReplyDelete
  7. The lampshade is great. I'm afraid I would make it look lumpy. Re: the chair, everyone always paints everything, but I love the gleam of refinished wood,so maybe consider that too.

    ReplyDelete
  8. The shade looks great. I've gotta try that. I'm excited to see how the chair turns out. It has such a lovely frame.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oooh, you’re such an inspiration. I love this blog!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for leaving a message. I really appreciate it!
Gracias para dejar un commentario. Me gusta mucho!
Kathy