Tutorial Tuesday: How to Recover a Basic Lamp Shade

I had a couple of requests to do a tutorial showing how to recover a basic, cylindrical lamp shade, so here goes. This type of lamp shade is not only very easy to come by and cheap, but it is also very easy to recover. You can even find them new at Ross for $2.99. I got this one for $1 at a thrift store. I wanted to recover it in linen, but cannot afford the luxury - another example of my champagne tastes and my beer bottle pockets. So, I opted for a less expensive linen-like fabric and picked up this flax colored muslin for $2.99/yard. Usually muslin is more of a creamy beige and so, I was very happy to find this unusual, brownish-gray muslin - a perfect imitation linen.

This is how I recovered the lampshade:

1. Lay the shade on a large sheet of paper or newspaper and, starting at the seam trace the top of the shade as you slowly roll it until the seam is on the bottom again. Then, roll it back and do the same for the bottom edge.

2. Cut out the paper pattern and wrap it around the shade to make sure it fits well.






3. Then, pin the paper pattern to your fabric and cut it out.




4. Iron a 1/4" fold where you will overlap and glue the two edges, so it will look like a finished seam. Wrap it around, pulling it tightly and glue the seam together first.


5. After gluing the seam together, you can glue the fabric to the bottom and top edge.

You can leave it plain, if you like or add trim or a ruffle to the bottom or top edge. I decided to try a double ruffle on my shade for some extra frou frou. If you need help making a ruffle, see my Tutorial Tuesday from last week on how to sew a ruffle. The only thing I did differently with these ruffles is that I sewed the double stitches straight down the middle of the fabric strip, instead of biased to one side as I showed in the tutorial.



Continuing on...
6. Cut two lengths of fabric (2x the circumference of the shade). For mine, the first strip is 3 inches wide and the second is two inches wide.




7. Ruffle them up!



8. Glue the wider of the two ruffles along the bottom first.





9. Glue the narrower ruffle inside the wider ruffle along the bottom edge.

Here is the final result: a lovely, linen-like, double ruffle lamp shade!

I found this vintage lamp base, which is actually a candle holder, at a thrift store for a couple of dollars. It was brass, but I painted it white and lightly distressed it. It is hollow inside, so it should be very easy to turn it into a lamp with a lamp kit. I think it pairs nicely with my new shade.

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