DIY Floral Lampshade

A couple of weeks ago while in London, I paid an obligatory visit to the third floor my favorite and one of the most iconic stores in the world: Liberty of London. After pulling bolts and bolts of Liberty fabric from the shelves, I eventually walked away with enough DIY supplies and material to hold me over until my next British stopover. It also didn’t take me long to whip together an incredibly simple DIY, upon my return, using a couple of sweet floral prints. This floral lampshade is a breeze to make and a fantastic way to utilize fabric without having to use a sewing machine!

You’ll need:

• one yard of floral fabric plus 1/6 yard of fabric for trim
• a metal lampshade frame
• double sided fabric tape
• needle & thread
• scissors

Start by finding the crosswise grain of the fabric, which is perpendicular to the selvedge edges, which are always the outside edges. Make half inch slits into one side of the selvedge edge every 1.5 – 1.75 inches or so. Then rip! Ripping the fabric crosswise will tear nice, even strips of fabric. (Click images to enlarge)

The lampshade frame used in this tutorial measures 8 inches in top diameter, 14 inches in bottom diameter, and 11 inches in slant height. I’ve used approximately 25 33 inch strips of fabric. Remove any excess threads from the edges and iron the strips flat if necessary.

Fold the end of the first strip over the top ring of the metal lampshade frame and with a needle and tread, secure it in place with a few stitches.

Take the strip down over the outside of the frame, then inside the frame and back over the top. Because the top diameter is smaller than the bottom, I’ve overlapped the top section approximately 3/4 of an inch and the bottom approximately 1/4 of an inch. Trim the edge of the strip once it has run out and stitch it closed. Sew on the next strip at the same point and continue binding.

To get around the horizontal struts at the top of the metal frame, simply make a small slit in the edge of the fabric.

Once the binding is complete, either use the same fabric to bind the edges or use a contrasting color and pattern. For the binding edge, tear two 3 inch strips crosswise.

Fold over an inch of the fabric, pressing it flat with an iron. Adhere the double sided tape along the inside hem.

Start sticking the tape around the top edge of the lampshade, peeling off the paper backing little by little. Fold the tape over the edge.

Make small slits to work around the horizontal struts.

Repeat the same step around the bottom edge. If the fabric isn’t long enough to go around the bottom ring, two strips can be hand-stitched together before folding.

Your Liberty of London lampshade is finished. Try adding some pom pom trim or fringe to the bottom of the shade for some more pizzaz! Remember that fabric shades should always be used with a low wattage light bulb, which emits a low level of heat. xx