Our DIY Lampshade

I was suddenly inspired to "dress up" our lampshade after I saw this DIY tutorial over the internet. 

My inspiration:

We have just bought a yard-length japanese cotton fabric on sale, and it’s perfect for the lamp!   It’s an indigo fabric with japanese cherry blossoms:

Actually our lamp is already a pretty one to begin with, but the lampshade is already dirty on one side (our benefactor forget to check the item when he bought it so he didn’t see that there were dark marks along the inside edges of the lampshade).   So a "make over" is also in order. 

Here is the "before" photo of the lamp:

What we did:

1.  We traced the upper and lower edges of the lamp on to the cloth (Note:   it’s still best to do it first on a manila paper then use that as a template in cutting the cloth).  The start and end points shall be the vertical seam in the middle of the lampshade. 

2.  Cut the fabric.  You will get this shape.

3.   Next we fitted the fabric with the lampshade.  Thankfully, our first cut was perfect.

4.  We sealed the fabric into the lampshade using a fabric glue (a powerful double adhesive tape can also do the trick). 

5.  We proceeded to cut another piece of cloth from the fabric that will be used to glue to the lampshade with its stand.

6.  To make the lower edge look more neat, we glued some of our left over dark brown satin ribbon around it.

Here is the "after" photo of our lamp:

And when it is turned on at night, it glows like this:

Whaddya think?  We think it’s nice and not a bad one for our first try hehe.   We absolutely adore the lit-up little white flowers in the fabric.   The indigo shade of the fabric was a nice break to our beige-and-brown colored living room. 

Here’s to more DIY projects at home!