New lampshades!

Maybe you have to be me to be excited about this.

But what the heck, I am me, and I have been wanting new lampshades like forever.

Seriously, isn’t this pathetic?

The lampshade that came with the lamp eons ago was a dingy yellowed drum shade. It worked ok but never excited me.  Then in the last move the shade got ruined.  This bright white shade was $3 at a thrift shop. Price is all it had going for it.  The smaller lamp to the left came with A. She loves it. I like the lamp but that shade-!  It clings to dust, the trim is peeling off, I hate it.

So, I was wandering around Etsy one day, and I came across a site,  I like that lamp.  Among other things, Kiri  the owner, sells kits to make your own lampshades.  Hmmm.  I “favorited”  the shop and life went on.

Then I had a good season selling knits, and I got paid through Paypal.  Ut-oh, dangerous!  I remembered the lamp shade kit and went back to check it out.  Following her directions, I measured the lamp for the shade it should have, and I went ahead and ordered the kit.

Pretty quickly I got a message that it was shipped, and almost instantly I got an email from Kiri saying that due to a computer mix up, she shipped me the wrong size, but she was dropping the right size into the mail.  I should keep the wrong one when it came.  We went back and forth a bit on that, but she was insistent. I acquiesced, gracefully, I think.  🙂

Soon this came!

And I opened it up to find this inside:

So pretty!  I love that she takes the time to package the kit in such cheerful papers.

 

Then came the next step.  Choosing fabric.  The instructions, and my common sense said to choose a light colored, light weight fabric.  The room is soft blue/gray, everything in it is blue, except the floor and ceiling which are wood, and A’s 2 big brown chairs. (Which are going away the next time I have a enough money for new chairs.  Don’t tell.)

I convinced A that we needed to go to the wonderful fabric store in Belfast, Fiddle Head Artisan Supply.  I left her out in the car with her iphone games for entertainment, and in I went to scope it out.

There are so many beautiful fabrics in this store, it makes me want to do nothing but sew.  Until I get home and actually have to deal with pattern and machine, of course. They have two rooms – one is primarily cottons for quilting (or summer skirts 🙂 ), the other with really nice quality fabric for dressmaking.  I stuck to the cotton room. They also have other supplies, including real wool felt, and I managed to NOT get any of that, but it was tough.

I saw this cool thing, made with what appear to be paper drinking straws. I might have to make one…

Back to the lampshade fabric…

I quickly realized that not just any fabric would do.  Because of the size of the shade, the direction of the pattern really mattered.  I wanted to be careful not to have my pattern come out sideways in the finished product.  This caused me to regretfully rule out some really cute prints.

And, because I love A and want her to stick around, flowers were out.  Prints that are flowered, prints that look like they might be flowered, prints that vaguely resemble flowers.  She is not having any of it.  There is a reason that so far every single thing in our house is a solid color.  Except in my craft room where I have very nice looking (I think) flowered curtains and roman shades.

Before too long, I had a nice stack of fabric.  I did what any 21st century shopper would do.  I took photos of them all, and sent them to her in the car so she could weigh in on the decision.  I figured I would be the winner as I only sent her photos of fabrics I liked.  🙂

Here are the selections:

Wait a minute – where did that red come from?  I thought I decided light colors?  Well, I did, but I loved that print and thought a pop of red in the room would look fabulous.

 

A thought I was mad, and she chose the one with the dotted swirls.

I still might go back and get that red someday, looking at it now, I really like it.

There things sat for a couple of weeks.  I needed the right time, lots of patience, and of course, to clear up the table in the craft room.

 

Today was the right time.  A is at work, I have a holiday.  Its snowing, so the light in the craft room is good, no glare.

 

I set to work.  Ironed the fabric carefully, and headed upstairs.

The directions are short, sweet and clear.  Apparently, there are tutorial videos, I didn’t look at them. I don’t think I needed to.

I laid both shades out on the fabric and got to work.

The styrene liners are really rolled up tightly, I had to use lots of weights to hold them in place.

(Oh look what I found for weights – more lamps!!)

I fussed a bit with the fabric, which as you can see is thin enough that I can see my cutting board beneath it.  This is a good thing, as I wanted is all to be as straight as possible.

Finally I had to get brave and peel the backing off the styrene and stick it down.  This was just as easy as the instructions said, not as hard as I expected.  I peeled and stuck slowly, smoothing as I went.

It wasn’t long before I was ready to fit the rings into the cylinder and start gluing.  I am not sure if the tutorials will show this step, the directions here did not, but I did a dry fit at this point, to make sure I had the cylinder at the exact right size.  This was a bit fussy, but I am glad I did it, as I was able to make adjustments now, not when I was covered in glue.  🙂

Once I was sure it would all work, I set to doing the gluing.  This also went very smoothly, and again I followed the directions and did a bit at a time, pulling it tightly as I went.  I used all the clips she sent in both kits on the first (smaller) shade.  Luckily I have a million of these clips, so I was able to do both shades today. Other wise I would have had to wait for the first one to dry.  Or gotten brave and trusted that Kiri knows her stuff and I don’t need all these clips.  You know I was afraid of it snapping open and me having a sticky mess on my hands. That did not happen.  In no time, the second shade followed the first.  Here they are immediately after the gluing was done (and look – another old lamp in the background!):

And here they are in the living room, clips and all.  I am going to give them until tomorrow to let the glue dry really well before I remove the clips.

The small one is really too small for that lamp, but look – the old thrift store drum shade fits it pretty well!

So I will have to find another lamp for my new little shade.

I am really pleased with how these turned out and how easy it really was to do the shades.  I will be making more of these in the future -a  red one, perhaps?  And of course, since I uncovered no fewer than SIX shade-less lamps in the corner of the craft room when I was looking for weights, I can imagine that I will be making some so that they can be used again. I did not realize I had turned into a lamp collector.  I do know I like lots of light, so I guess it makes sense, in a hoarder sort of way.

If you are thinking of doing this, I can’t recommend I Like That Lamp kits enough.  I’ll be checking out more of her offerings in the future.

I do recommend that you start with a smaller shade if you have that option – the big one was a bit harder to work with due to its size, but I had confidence from doing the smaller one first.  I can see myself getting a bit frustrated if I had started with the larger one first.

 

Just a note – I was not paid in any way for this review. Although I did essentially get two kits for the price of one, that was her providing excellent customer service, not asking for an endorsement.