Creating a Lamp Shade Slipcover with Six Different Fabrics

 

Meghan sent me this lampshade along with 6 different fabrics in shades of red, gold and black and asked it I’d recover it for her. Well, technically she asked before she shipped it.

As you can see, the before shade is very cute but Meghan wanted to spice things up a bit.

Warning: Lots of how-to pics ahead!

I began by taking a look at how the shade was constructed and decided to follow the same lines with the exception of the vertical bias tape trim. 

I carefully cut the black & white check fabric away from the shade with a seam ripper in order to keep the lining intact.

Old shade cover removed and metal shade form exposed with lining still in place.

I laid out each fabric to determine in which order I’d place them around the shade. I drew out a pattern an roughly cut out each “panel” for the new shade.

I pinned and trimmed them in place.

And then sewed them together creating my slipcover.

At this point I tried the slipcover on the form and took additional seams in order to “fit” the new cover snugly to the shade then trimmed the seam allowances to about 1/4″ to 3/8″.

Important Step: When recovering a shade you always want to try out the fabrics over your light source. Especially when working with several different fabrics.

As you can see, these 6 fabrics look completely different when lit from beneath. 

The solution to this dilemma is blackout lining. Even though it blocks the light coming through the fabrics it’s a much cleaner and neater look for the slipcover.

Using the same technique to fit the fabrics to the shade, I made a blackout lining to give the 6 different fabrics the same appearance when the lamp is lit.

Option: You can also line each of the fabric panels with a piece of blackout lining before sewing them together instead of creating an entirely separate lining. I chose not to do this because I hate working with blackout lining and thought this option might be easier.

I placed the two layers – the blackout lining and new slipcover – together on the shade. 

I pinned them in place occasionally using left over glittery wedding clothespins to hold things in place. 

Keeping the layers pinned together and marked…

I sewed the layers together and trimmed the edges to the length of the shade plus 1″ – (1/2″ for both upper and lower edges) for seam allowances.
*I cut mine about 1-1/4″ longer to allow the trim to be about 1/8″ longer than the shade.
See below.

Using the black and white check fabric I cut 2″ strips on the bias to create my own trim. 

I sewed the 2″ bias strips to the lower edge of the slipcover – Right side of bias strip to wrong side of slipcover using a 1/2″ seam allowance.

WHY DO IT THIS WAY?

Here is a photo of the bias tape from the original shade pinned in place as an example. If I had only glued a trim to the shade the raw edges of the new pieced cover as well as the blackout lining would possibly have been visible.

By sewing my bias tape in place, folding and wrapping it around to the front of the slipcover I was able to hide the raw edges. 

Here you can see the lower edge of the slipcover has the bias tape sewn on, folded and pinned in place waiting for top stitching. I’m repeating the same procedure for the upper edge of the slipcover.

In this photo you can see where the bias trim was sewn in place on the back side of the slipcover. I folded the trim once to meet the raw edge and then folded it again to cover the raw edge. (If cut and sewn correctly a 2″ strip of bias cut fabric will create a 1/2″ folded bias tape trim. I’m positive I had to trim away excess here and there. It’s never as precise as you expect it to be.) 

Waiting for top stitching.

I top stitched each band of bias trim along the upper and lower edge of the slipcover.

My finished Lamp Shade Slipcover ready to be secured in place. 

At this point I fitted the slipcover to the shade making sure the seams lined up with the metal shade form and secured it in place with clothespins.

I used hot glue to secure the slipcover to the shade. You can also use fabric glue. The clothespins kept the slipcover secure while the glue dried. 

I secured the slipcover where the trim was below the shade approximately 1/8″ *as mentioned above. 

Now we have a brand new, multi-fabric, lamp shade slipcover ready for it’s new home.

I can honestly say not all of my lampshade re-dos have turned out this well. This one took a few additional steps but well worth it.

Visit THE GALLERY for more Creative Projects.

 

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