You'll need a kit but they are available on-line and are not only easy to use but give a very professional finish leaving you with a totally unique lampshade and a huge sense of achievement. In fact, I was so pleased with the results when I made my first lampshade, I went on to make two more!
The first was a joint Craft Club effort, with five of us tackling it together. We had all brought our selected fabric and, in some cases trimmings, and someone had done a bulk order of kits, making it a bit cheaper.
The kit comes with the top and bottom metal rings of the shade, a self-adhesive plastic sheet which forms the drum wall that you stick to your chosen fabric (or paper - wallpaper works well), some super-strong double-sided tape, a small plastic tool, and excellent set of step-by-step instructions complete with photos. There's even a video which is great to give you the general idea before you start:
They say it can be done single-handed - the video even proves it - but I have to say I've not completed any of my three projects without an extra pair of hands to help when rolling the fabric onto the metal rings, so don't say I didn't warn you! I also cut the fabric a bit longer than the plastic sheet on one of the short ends - the width of the double-sided tape to be exact. I then fold this edge over, sticking it with some spare double-sided tape, so that you don't get any fraying fabric edges where the drum edges join (although this isn't necessary if you are using paper for your shade.) Don't be tempted to fold over too much or it will show on the inside.
I started off with a 20cm drum shade as I had a small piece of silk left over from trimming the guest room curtains, but the rest of the crafty ladies tackled the 30cm drum shades. We were so excited with the end results we even posed for a silly photo!
I then decided to make a shade for an old Habitat lamp that had long ago had its shade banished to a charity shop. I hope you agree that it now has a new lease of life.
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| You can just see the result of the folded edge here |
My latest project was completed last weekend and was inspired by a beautiful gift. A friend of a friend gave me a present of two pieces of beautiful fabric. One just screamed "make me into a lampshade!" It is heavily embroidered in in shades of grey, silver and black. The long stitches of the embroidery does mean that, when cut, they leave fairly long threads so I did tidy around the rolled edges with some latex fabric glue to hold them in place.
The only problem is, I'm now seriously considering getting new sofas because my old, saggy green ones really don't go with the lampshade. Now, that's dedication to handmade lampshades, even if I do say so myself!
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