Lamp shade project

D picked up a lamp from a 2nd hand store a few years ago, and I finally got him to let me play with it. Originally, it had a beige cover with black feathers around the bottom, and I wanted to chuck the thing across the bedroom. The shade had a crack in it, and I didn't understand why D was so attached. Well, D is out of town, so I'm recovering it!

First I took the shade all the way apart. I brushed off the shade with a damp cloth to remove dust, then found some fabric I wanted to use.

Using the open shade as a template, I traced the shade with an added 1/2 inch border. (I used a 1/4 inch, and it just wasn't quite enough to make me comfortable when I wrapped the fabric to the frame again.)
For this next part I moved to the kitchen floor and busted open a box (specifically, a Goose Island Honker's Ale) to protect from over spray. Use your favorite spray adhesive and coat the outside of the lamp shade. Before it dries, put the fabric on the outside of the lamp shade.

Some helpful tips for this part:

1 - Put the fabric right side down and place the shade on the fabric, instead of putting the fabric on the shade.

2- Start in the middle of the shade and gently press the fabric in place, leaving the 1/2 inch of fabric on both sides. As you work your way to each side, press out any bubbles or wrinkles.

3 - Also to make a clean edge on the seam when the shade is put back together, the shade should be moved just a bit to one side so the shade edge is not covered in fabric. See photo below.




Reassembling the shade:

1 - Using a hot glue gun, attach the extra flap of fabric around the edge of the seam edge. After it is pressed down, hot glue this "finished edge" to the other edge side, re-forming the shade to a 3 dimensional shape. I used binder clips to help hold things in place.

2 - Insert bottom ring and fold 1/2inch of fabric around the metal. Use a hot glue gun to secure fabric to ring. Use the same technique for top ring.

If you want to add a little extra, you can glue a strand of ribbon around the brim of the shade. Move very carefully around the edge, gluing and pressing the ribbon small sections at a time. The extra ribbon can hang down, or be wrapped around to the back of the shade and held in place with glue.

This took me about 35 minutes once I had the fabric picked out and I found my glue gun. I like how it turned out!

Kristy ran!

Kristy ran the Chicago Marathon! Yay Kristy!

Dan and I went up to Chicago to cheer her on this past weekend, and Chicago put on a good show. The weather was warm, the breeze came out, and most were in good spirits.

We drove through Champaign and made a jam drop at my brother's. Six huge jars of Ciara's homemade jam from the stock pile at dad's house to his. "How long with this last you Miah?" "Six jars? Probably six weeks." My brother loves jam.

My weekend was rounded out with a trip to my favorite fabric shop - The Needle Shop - and a special treat of meeting Alice, Gus's sister and Dan's aunt. I happen to think aunts are pretty cool, being one myself, and Alice was no exception. She is a wonderful story teller, and hearing about how she met her husband on a 2 week long steam ship voyage from New York to Athens was both hilarious and a trip through time.

There was a lot of fun crammed into the weekend, so I'm tired today. I got sun burnt while cheering Kristy on (ironic as she was running to raise money for skin cancer research), and for some reason my body hasn't liked the weather since leaving Juneau. I can't seem to drink enough water, and lotion just gets sucked into my skin. I'm hoping everything calms down. Or it rains. Both would be preferred.