Lovely Lampshades

Well, after reading Amanda's comments about the lampshades, I decided to go for it. After reading a couple tutorials, I took another look at the old shade and noticed that the black fabric was attached to a plastic of some sort. I was able to peel off the black and reuse the plastic and wire frame. The problem with doing that was that the fabric was what was holding the plastic and wire together so I ended up with a couple random parts and was worried about getting it all back into place. But I used a few dollops of hot glue to tack it into place until my new fabric was ready.

I bought a yard and a half of a cotton fabric (I ended up with quite a bit left, one yard would probably have been enough but it depends on your shade) and a can of spray adhesive at Hobby Lobby and was ready to go. I used the plastic as a template, leaving about an inch on each side. I sprayed both the plastic and the fabric with spray adhesive and rolled the shade around, folding in the last edge to create a nice seam. I was worried about wrinkles but the spray adhesive was great. It was tacky enough that everything stuck right away but I could readjust as needed. One tutorial said to use clothes pins to hold everything in place but I didn't need those at all. Then I folded the extra fabric over the metal frame on the inside to finish the edges and fully keep the wire in place, trimming it as needed to fit around wires and in the corner. Overall, the project was much easier than I thought. And the results...well, see for yourself:

If you want to try a project like this, I have a couple tips for you.

• You should iron your fabric before you start. This should be obvious but well, I didn't think about it for the first lamp. Luckily I only ended up with one wrinkle and it was near the seam so it was already going to be the back.
  
• I also didn't realize on the first lamp was that once the light was on, the inner seam would show through, but I was able to quickly unstick one edge and trim it closer before it dried so that will just have to be the front. I was more careful on the second lamp so that wasn't a problem. Just be sure to keep edges as small and straight as possible.
• Spray adhesive is amazing stuff but it is also amazingly messy. It got everywhere and coated my fingertips until they were little lint traps. The only thing I could find that really took it off was my OCM olive oil/castor oil mixture although pure olive oil might work too. So be sure to have some on hand and cover all surfaces, even those two feet away that you think can't possible get any adhesive on them. They will.
  

Other than that, it's a piece of cake. Try it!