~VINTAGE LACE LAMPSHADE TUTORIAL FOR YOU~

~PAINTED LAMP and VINTAGE LACE SHADE~

One of the things I love about creating things for both my home and business is being inspired by all the incredible talent out there in Blogland and beyond!  Years ago we had to purchase craft and decor magazines in order to get our weekly/monthly jolt of ideas~but these days just a couple clicks on one's mouse and you can find most anything your heart desires.

~ORIGINAL LAMP~

I've loved following Karen over at My Desert Cottage.  She is so talented and I love her spirit and I love her home.  A few years ago (2010) Karen gave us a Tutorial on how she recovered a lampshade with stuff a crafter might already have on hand.  Well...I missed her original post, but I found it thanks to Pinterest.

~ ORIGINAL SHADE~

I loved her transformed shade so much that I decided to use the basis of her idea and fashion a shade for a lamp I snagged last week at a tag sale.

~PAINTED BASE~

I started off by painting everything a soft white.  This included the shade's frame and the entire lamp.  After everything was dry I went over everything with Annie Sloan's Dark Wax.  Just love that stuff!  First apply clear wax and let it dry.  Then go over everything with the dark wax and wipe off the excess leaving some in the cracks and crevices!

~ATTACHING FIRST PIECE OF LACE~

After removing the original fabric on the shade and cleaning off all the old glue (Googone) I painted it and let it dry.  I then pulled out my big bag of scrap lace (tattered and fine) and began covering the shade by hand-stitching the lace into place.

~MORE LACE WAS ADDED~

Fabric glue is a mess and hot-glue won't hold due to the heart of the lamp's bulb.  So...I stitched away.  Now...I have to tell you that this all took a long, long time.  My back was aching by the time I was done!

~AND MORE LACE~

~AND MORE...~

~MORE...~

As each piece of lace was chosen I stitched it onto the piece already secured onto the shade.  I stitched right over the metal leaving the prettiest scalloped-edge-lace for the edges (if possible).  I just kept layering and stretching the lace and hand-stitching it into place as I went.

~LAST OF THE LACE~

After the entire shade was covered I added the pretty insertion lace (gorgeous vintage French? find!) around the top edge leaving the tattered and well loved portion sticking up over the shade's top edge.

~REMOVABLE ROSE PIN~

Lastly a removable rose pin was added to the front along with a gathered vintage lace doily and some ruched  up rayon ribbon...

All in all this was a fun project!  It really was.  I used up tons of my lace scraps (a good thing!) and the project was something new for a change after lots of pillow making of late!  I've done lace lampshades before, but seldom without removing the original fabric first.
 
~LIGHT OFF~

 Downside to the project was that the shade alone took me about 6 hours plus to cover.  So...it was fairly labor intensive...at least it was time-wise.  And like I already said my back is hurting from standing for too long!  I never sit when doing projects like this~way too much moving around to remain in a chair...I'd be up and down and up and down....

(Thank you Karen Valentine for the inspiration on making the shade! ) 

Today I'm linking up with the following:

Green Willow Pond for What We Accomplished Wednesdays

Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesdays

Ivy and Elephants for What's It Wednesday
DIY Design for It's a Party
Timewashed for Blissful Whites Wednesday

Hope your Wednesday is awesome.  Crummy weather is suppose to come to Oklahoma and I'm praying our fairly new roof doesn't go sweeping down the plain...

Love to you...