We recently bought a new standard lamp for the dining room. It was one of those that has 3 legs merging together at the top. It's called a tripod and we got it in the sale from Habitat (result)! The only thing was that you had to buy the shade separately and because the base was pretty tall, it needed a really big shade to finish it off...and they are expensive! Plus I really didn't want some bland beige or white shade. I wanted something that would fit with the new decor and add in some of the brighter colours, so it was a great opportunity to make my own.
I got the kit from a great website called Need Craft. They had a superb range of shapes and sizes so I opted for a modern drum shade 45cm diameter. At the same time I also got some extra kit materials as I decided to re-do the shade on a pretty glass lamp base that I already had. The next step was finding the right fabric. I had an idea in my head but couldn't seem to find what I wanted. Our dearest friends have an interior shop in Cheltenham Upstairs Downstairs and they let me have a rummage in their offcuts pile. Luckily I found 2 bits of fabric that were just the right colours. The only problem was that they frayed really badly. The one piece wasn't too bad but the larger stripe was awful (more on that in a mo...)
So this is what you get in a kit - 2 rings, double-sided tape, backing sheet (which has a sticky side) and a little triangular piece with a jagged edge that you use to push the fabric under the ring edges on the inside.
Next place your fabric wrong side up (I find it helped to iron it first) and then start peeling off some of the backing on the sheet provided. This is quite stiff and is the inner of the lampshade. Carry on peeling off the backing and stick the sticky side onto the fabric as straight as you can. It's not difficult, but I had to be careful because my fabric was striped so I didn't want to skew it. Roll the sheet along the length of your fabric, firming it down with your hand. It's quite sticky but you can lift it up and re-position if you need to (which I did on my smaller shade).
Once stuck on, cut around the edge of the sheet (you can see in the above photo how much my fabric was already fraying.
The backing sheet has a partially cut line along the 2 lengths. You need to 'crack' this edge and peel it off leaving an edging of fabric along each side (see below).
Then place some double-sided tape along one of the shorter edges and peel off. This will be the edge that sticks the lampshade all together so make sure you choose the edge you want to show on the outside. You can see my edges are really fraying at this point so I actually placed double-sided tape along the edges to stop them unraveling any more. My sister has since suggested I use something like Aleene's stop fray fabric glue. Hindsight, eh?
Next, take the roll of double-sided tape and place it all around the outer edges of the lampshade rings. I don't know if this is normal double-sided but it is super sticky! Peel the red film off.
Now the slightly tricky bit. Take your two rings and place them at the start of the fabric (NOT the edge with the double-sided tape) and start rolling. Keep rolling all the way keeping your rings straight along the edges of the backing sheet. When you reach the end then stick the overlapping ends together. So the edge with the double-sided tape then sticks on top of the start edge.
Next roll over the top and bottom edges of fabric over the edges of the rings. It will stick onto the double-sided tape that is on the rings. You then use the triangular piece of card with the jagged edge to tuck under the ends of the fabric inside the shade. However, because my fabric had frayed I didn't have enough fabric to really roll over neatly and then tuck into the underside of the rings, but it doesn't really show so I can ignore it!
And the finished result! The larger drum shade (instructions above) and the smaller shade that I re-covered. Pretty darn pleased :)
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