Lampshades 101

Everyone loves the lampshades we have in the store and so Sonya is sharing how she recovers a lampshade.  We are hoping to feature a "how to" each month until we run out of ideas!  If you want to know how we do certain things at the shop, just leave us a comment and we'll see what we can do.

Starting at the lamp shade seam, clip or mark with a pin a starting point on the fabric.  Then roll the shade (see next picture) on the fabric to be sure you have enough fabric and to position a particular part of the fabric you may want for the front of the shade.  A cone shape shade will take more fabric than a drum shape.



I have used a narrow piece of fabric to illustrate why you need to position shade on fabric before glueing.  Mark your starting point on the fabric with a pin at the top and bottom of shade seam.



My "spray booth" is a sheet of plastic over a chair and coffee can.

Roll the glued shade onto the fabric and smooth into place as you roll.  Then do a generous rough trim at the top and bottom.  Follow the side seam of the shade to trim fabric leaving a 1/2" edge to glue down.

LikeUnlike


Now, carefully trim again with just enough fabric to completely cover rim of shade.  Then run a good bead of glue (I use Tacky glue) on the fabric and then smooth glue with your finger to be sure the outside edge of fabric is covered with glue.  Do a section at a time and then clip down with binder clips.





Voila!!   Two finished lampshades (I did another one when you weren't looking).