Re-covering a lamp Tutorial Part 1

For a while now I have been looking for a lamp for my daughters room. Something that fits in with the robot themed wall and paintbox quilt (yet to be finished). I thought that given that it was Christmas time, that there would be plenty to choose from in the shops. But the choices were limited and the prices ridiculous.

When I saw this lamp at Kmart, I knew that it was crying out for a "hack". The lamp is a 38cm Lotus Lamp, which cost me $11 AUD, bulbs were aout $2.

First thing that I did was trace the shape of the lamp. Laying it down and tracing and rolling it along some paper to give me the basic shape of the lamp. Allowing some space at the top and bottom to fold the fabric around the lamp. My measurements are not exact, drawn free-form.

Then we cut out the fabric for the lamp. Giving it a nice steam press and running a small 2cm strip of interfacing along the side that would be folded under to give it a bit of structure and strength. I chose not to interface the whole lot as I thought that the heat from the lamp might play havoc with it. I got the fabric from GJ's in East Brunswick. If you bought a fat quarter, it would cover this lamp shade.

Once we had cut the fabric, we sprayed it with low-tack quilters spray so that we could re-position it on the lamp face until there were no bubbles. Sewing pegs came in handy at this point.

I used adhesive glue to turn the top and bottom allowances into the lamp then held in place with pegs. The plan now is to use a hot glue gun to secure and some white bias binding to cover the raw edges of the fabric inside the lamp, however, my hot glue gun decided to kick the bucket :-(

So there will be an emergency trip to Spotlight tomorrow (dangerous I know) so that I can glue up and finish the lamp. Then I might make nice matching patchwork placemat to sit the lamp on for her bedside table.