Tuesday, August 3, 2010

How to Cover a Lamp Shade --

I was visiting in Maryland this past weekend. Over the next few days I'll share some of my adventures. Today, I'm going to share how Jenny covered a lampshade for her baby's room. Here's the lamp with the plain shade. Jen looked for one with the least amount of flare. If she could have found one straight up and down it would have been much easier! (notice a familiar red, pink and white quilt?)
She cut the fabric slightly wider than the shade and about an inch longer than the widest part. Then she folded under the raw edge on the shorter side. Using a glue gun she glued the folded edge to the seam on the shade. Then she folded the other side so it would meet the glued edge.
She then glued the bottom edge to the inside of the shade. We found we had to glue small sections at a time or the glue would cool too fast.
Because the shade was wider at the bottom than at the top she had to gather the top edge. Using a needle and thread she ran a gathering stitch about a half inch in around the top edge.

Then we pulled it up. My job during the whole event was holding. So, here I am holding the strings tight.
Jenny glued the top edge with some gathers to take up the excess fabric.
She snipped where the frame got in the way.
Here's the finished shade.
Here's the finished project shining in the baby's room.

Not bad for a first effort. I'm wondering whether I have a few lamps that could benefit from colorful shades!
Today's plans include working on a miniature quilt for Marge's challenge for
Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. I don't think mine will be particularly artsy but it will be attractive. Not much time left but I really want to create at least one and maybe, if time allows, two mini quilts for this. I'll be doing a little leader/ender sewing as I work on this little quilt. I've got a Quilt for Kids kit started and how about if I think of finishing the Small Quilt Talk's Irish Chain challenge? That should keep me busy between moving laundry and cleaning up a bit at home.
Happy Quilting All!


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