another school room project: lamp shades

I guess I lied yesterday when I said I had finished the "final" school room project - curtains and a bookshelf... 

But I had this great idea yesterday - making over two school room lamp shades. The first lamp shade was this pendant lamp hanging next to the old fireplace. "Lovely" forest green. The hall walls used to painted that color too...

this photo is from when Terry began constructing the boys wall for their bedroom. during Atlas no less!

And the other one was this white lamp on the school table. We've had it and another upstairs forever, and the shade is quite beat up, as I discovered yesterday while dusting it. 

So (sew - haha), my idea was to sew new fabric onto the two lamp shades. I thought it would be so fun if the school table lamp shade matched the new curtains! I had only 11 inches by about three or four feet, which was not ideal for the shape of the shade. And the other gray fabric was actually a free baby sling I ordered and used only once because it was too small. I'd been wanting to use it for something and this was my opportunity.

I did a little research last night and found someone who had just peeled off the pleated part of the shade, and sure enough, it worked for me too! Yay! 

And as a bonus, it works as a tube top for Evie or to be jumped on by Ezra and Samuel. 

I considered hanging the pendant shade just like this because it already looked so incredibly improved. 

So then the hard part began - figuring out how to cover this curved lamp shade with straight fabric. My first attempt was to tape the bottom down and fold over the top. Ick.

Then I tried more organized pleats. It was too difficult. 

So I thought I'd imitate one video I watched where the lady made a pattern of the lamp shade and then cut the fabric to match... 

You're probably smarter than me and could see sooner how that wouldn't solve my original problem. Still had all those folds/pleats. I had been thinking that perhaps I could cut those pleats off easier this way and sew the remaining fabric together. There was no way I'd get it to come together nicely.

I had about lost hope when I looked at the picture I had taken with my phone last night to show my mom my plan. All I had done was lay the fabric over the shade, starting at the top and flowing around the sides. So that's what I ended up doing. Once the fabric was draped around the thing, I cut it. Then I turned the shade around and wrapped the remaining fabric around it again, starting at the top and overlapping the front. Finally I had only two small areas uncovered at the top, so I cut some patches to fit and pinned everything down. 

Then I removed the fabric from the shade and sewed the seams. The sewing is done and it fits great, but the seams don't look so hot. So my plan is to cover them, and the top and bottom of the shade, with some orange ribbon. Hobby Lobby here we come (tomorrow)!

Ta-dah! Matchy matching! 

The pendant lamp shade was so (sew - haha) much easier.  The larger end of the sling fit perfectly around the bottom of the lamp shade. I considered cutting fabric out to smooth it out, but decided rather quickly just to sew it around the top of the shade to hold it in place. Then I just cut off the excess and was done!

Boom baby! I am so pleased with those these both turned out. If there was anything lacking in the school room, it was some light for this corner.