EASY No Sew Fabric Lampshade
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These lamps are the first thing you see when you enter my house and if it weren’t for the DIY picture frame molding there wouldn’t be anything going on in this front room; it’s basically crying for some creativity!
I had these sconce lamps in my entryway for a while but they didn’t have any PIZAZZ. Then when I started seeing the lampshade trend I decided to give it a try and I can’t believe how easy it is!
I’ll show you exactly what I did so you can make your own and now I think I’ll cover every boring lampshade in my house! It adds so much charm which this front room desperately needs.
These are the exact sconce lights that I bought off of amazon! They are a great price, size, and antique gold I’ve been super happy with them.
I don’t really know of any fabric stores local to where I live and usually, when I get a wild hair for a project I’m chomping at the bit and want to do it RIGHT then which means ordering something online was going to be a last resort. I decided to try my luck at JoAns and was shocked I found this gorgeous vintage-looking block pattern fabric!
It was even on sale so I got two yards not knowing how much I needed. I actually only ended up 1/3 of the first yard so I have plenty left over to use elsewhere!
I didn’t have any fancy fabric scissors, heck I couldn’t even find my normal household scissors haha I grabbed the only pair I could find which was kid craft scissors that were small for my hand and made things pretty tedious. If I can do this project with those dumb scissors then you got this no matter what!
Step 1. Cut Your Strips
Measure the height of your lampshade and cut yourself a sliver of fabric that is the height and 2-3” wide. Depending on the size of your lampshade you might need more strips but for my lampshades, I used about 40 per shade.
Step 2: Fold the Strips
Turn your fabric face down and run a line of glue along the top. Next, fold the sides into the middle so they’re even. Do the same on the bottom until you get a thin strip. Personally, I think what makes the best good-looking DIY lampshade are the crisp creases in the folds. I didn’t have an iron so I would press along the folded edges and then set a heavy book on it to flatten while I continued on the others. I felt it worked good enough and just got a little creative without an iron.
Step 3. Glue to Lamp
I started with my first strip on the seam of my lamp since the seam is perfectly straight I thought it would be a good guide.
You will continue all the way around your shade layering them on top of one another. Now, this is where it’s up to you with how the style of your lampshade looks. You can have the pattern either line up perfectly or sporadically, and you can have small close pleats or larger further ones. I just had to play around with it and just the rhythm of what I wanted.
When it comes to putting on the last pleat I tucked part of it behind the first pleat for a flawless finish. You can’t tell where you started by tucking it behind that first strip of fabric and NOW it’s really starting to look good!
Step 4: Top & Bottom Trim
Cut a wider strip of fabric about 4-5” wide and measure your strip of fabric around the top or bottom of your lamp then trim. I decided to have the pattern go the opposite way so I cut the fabric in the opposite direction of my pleats.
Do the same thing you did in step 2 and glue the long strips so they are folded in half. Next, I glued around the rim of the lamp and attached my strip then I glued the inside of the shade and folded the excess fabric into the inside of the lampshade.
Um…..Isn’t it so darn cute?! Can we give an award for the easiest, cheapest, and cutest DIY ever?! You’re going to impress everyone with your lampshade I just know it!
If you need a party/activity idea I’m planning to teach my mom and sisters how to make their own during our lampshade party so everyone can bring their ugly lampshades and we can swap fabric!
Let me know if you try this tutorial and as always thanks so much for reading!
xoxo,