For an easy no-sew home Liberty project, why not try a lampshade upgrade? Anna JP has slowly been building her lamp collection, showcasing three of them here along with a matching mouse-mat from the leftovers of the AW21 fabric.
All you need is fabric and household glue, plus a plain drum shade and about an hour’s free time. Here’s Anna to describe how to go about it:
“Firstly, measure the height of your drum shade and add a 2cm margin (1cm top and 1cm bottom), then cut a strip of fabric wide enough to fully wrap your shade with a small overlap at the end. Spread a thin layer of PVA glue – I used Pritt PVA Craft glue – along the current vertical join of the drum shade, and lay your fabric piece onto the glue. Then use a solid glue like Coccoina or a traditional Pritt Stick to kind of scribble all around the outer of the shade. This provides a surface for the fabric to tack onto, without soaking through. Tightly wrap the fabric, add another stripe of PVA glue on top of your first edge, and press down firmly to stick. Leave to dry.”
“Once reasonably dry, squeeze a line of glue onto the inside of the rolled edge of the shade. Fold up the fabric edge onto the glue, smoothing it with your fingers (messy!) as you go. I found it useful to get a plastic spreader to push the fabric edges right into the crease of the rolled edge. You will need to take a small triangular nick out of the fabric edge where it meets each bar of the lamp frame. Leave to dry, then repeat with the other rolled edge. Trim off any loose threads with small scissors.
“The mousemat was a similar construction – that is, I used a stick glue on the surface, and more generous amounts of liquid PVA around the underneath edges, smoothing it flat with my fingers, and weighing it down to help it dry neatly. So far it has held up to daily use, and is so much nicer as a desk accessory than the old plain grey one!”
Fabric used is Revival C.
“The other lampshades were all based originally on white plain drum shades, which of course means that the light cast by the shade is much brighter. I am glad I’ve experimented with this darker shade as well – it’s worked out fine and isn’t actually too dark. I just love the colours. I think I might need to experiment with teal or chartreuse for our new living room scheme!”
