Whose hanging around the nursery these days? This cute little owl sitting on a branch.
This is him without the light on...
...and this is him with the light on.
I love the way the light creates a blue edge around the shade!
My daughter's nursery was lacking in overhead lighting, so this was our way of alleviating some of the problem.
I covered a thrift store shade with some thrift store fabric. I deconstructed a thrifted swing arm lamp for the actual lighting portion of this lamp.
I appliqued an owl on a tree branch to match her woodland theme in the nursery.
Vintage buttons were used for the eyes. The whole project came in well under $10.00
You can see the whole process after the jump.
The Process
I began with a large shade and some lightweight polyester fabric that had a little bit of stretch to it. I placed the fabric around the shade and cut a length that would allow for extra fabric to fold over the top and bottom edges.
I cut my applique pattern from various fabrics and, using iron-on webbing, ironed them onto the polyester fabric, using a pressing cloth as to not hurt the polyester with the hot iron.
I opted for straight stitching around the applique pieces. It was faster, easier, and it wasn't going to go through the wash, so I figured it would be alright.
Once all the pieces were stitched on, I wrapped the fabric around the lamp shade with the right side against the shade. I pinned the back seams together snuggly. I carefully removed the pinned fabric, stitched and trimmed the seam. With the right side out, I then put the fabric back on the shade. Because the fabric had some stretch to it, it fit around the shade very nicely.
Using a low-temp hot glue gun, I placed glue around the inside edge of the shade and folded the fabric over the top and bottom edges. I made sure to pull the fabric gently as I glued so the finished result would be taut.
Once glued, I trimmed the edges to about 1/2".
I snipped the fabric to allow for the metal supports.
I secured the edges with a little more glue, then covered them with bias tape to give the inside a nice finish.
Now that the shade was done, I turned my attention to the swing arm lamp. I removed all of the "swing arm" part of the lamp, including cutting off the plug end.
I wasn't going to use a chain to hang this lamp, but I didn't want just a white cord either. So, I decided to cover the cord with fabric. I cut several strips 2 1/2" wide, stitched them end to end, then folded and stitched them.
I then turned the tube inside out and threaded it onto the cord. But...
...I got ahead of myself. I needed to thread the cord through the lampshade first before threading it through the fabric. So I guess the first time was a practice run!
I put the cord through the shade and then wired the light fixture in place.
Then, round two of threading the cord through the fabric tube.
To finish, I needed to wire the plug back on. Actually, I needed the cord to be longer so that it could hang from the ceiling, and then swag over to the corner. I used an extension cord and wired it to the cut end of the light cord. I would show pictures, but I'm not a licensed electrician and didn't feel comfortable giving directions. So find someone who's handy with that sort of thing and ask for their help! It's easy.
I used two clip-on cafe rings to attach to the fabric covered cord, and then hung those from two ceiling hooks.
I like to link to these great parties!
So, so cute, Susan!!!
ReplyDeleteAdorable! And SEW much fun!
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Kelley~