Saturday, August 3, 2013

Inside-out Burlap Lamp

My mom gave my sister and I old matching lamps, with a hint of a challenge: "I can't wait to see what you two do with them." Well, sister, I've finished mine. What're YOU going to do?


I wish I had a before picture, but I'm sure you can imagine this lamp in wood, with a lampshade. It actually had a pink gingham shade, but I used a similar plain shade that I had as the base for my burlap project. First, I painted the base black, then distressed it pretty heavily with sand paper. Then, I used the original lamp shade to make a paper template for the fabric panels. I pinned the template to burlap and cut out four panels. 



I pinned two panels together, matched them up to the real shade and used masking tape to mark where I needed to sew the seam. 


Then, I just sewed right beside the seam. I was nervous about getting the curve right, but the masking tape worked great to guide me. I could've written on the fabric with chalk, but I'm glad I didn't, because  what I thought would be the inside of the shade ended up being the outside.


After the panels were all attached, I put the shade on upside down to see if all the seams matched. It was then that I decided to leave it inside out for a rougher look. I mean, it's burlap, right? Doesn't get much scrappier than that. I decided to leave the white shade underneath and trimmed the excess flaps fabric down way shorter than what is shown here, but it still needed something.


I taped off a border around the top and bottom of the lamp.


Then I sewed a double "hem" around the top and a single around the bottom. 


After this picture, all that was left to do was hot glue the top frays into the lampshade. I decided to leave the bottom scraggly. When I showed it to Ryan, I got more than the usual fake-pleased "Looks good:" (that's a half-exclamation mark, not a colon, fyi). He kind of looked at it weird, I'm sure trying to decide if I was going to turn it right side out or not. Then I got the feigned excitement. Oh well. I like it. And I'm sure Calvin does too. That boy wears at least one article of clothing inside out every day. 

Linking up to Kammy's Korner: Trash 2 Treasure Tuesday

2 comments:

Deborah Raney said...

I totally did not give you that. I merely loaned it to you and now I want it back. ;) Seriously that turned out darling and it WOULD look great in my house!!

Unknown said...

Hahahaha- LOVE your mom's comment above ;) I have a lamp with the same boring white shade but the base is a cool green color that matches my living room so I had to have it when I saw it and have been planning to cover the shade in burlap. I love what you did with this...may be stealing your idea ;)

I saw your link over at Kammy's Corner and wanted to personally invite you to my very first linky party that I am hosting - Tute's Tuesdays at UpcycledAntiques.com. This is my first time hosting so advice would be greatly appreciated! I hope to see you at the party! ;) Again, I LOVE the lamp - beautiful and creative!