Old is New!

I love the warmth that lamp light gives.  Especially when I want to sit down with a good book, or when I want to entice others to do so.

                    

And all the better if the lamp is pretty!  Sometimes I have bought new lamps, but mostly I get them from GW.  We acquired this one from our neighbor a few years ago, on garbage collection day.  It even came with a light bulb!

                                   

It was fine where I had it in the old house, but once we moved it here, the brass was just too brassy, and the shade needed a little something.  I have another lamp that I made a shade for a few years ago, so I knew it wasn’t hard to do.  Just needed to figure out what fabric to use, what style, etc.

 

         

 

After glancing through my fabric, I decided to do a slipcover made from drop cloth fabric.  First I measured around the bottom part of the shade, which was 45 inches and doubled that.  I laid out the drop cloth and cut a long strip 1 inch wide along the hemmed edge of the fabric.  That way I wouldn’t need to hem the edge myself. 

I pleated the strip of fabric on the sewing machine, just folding it over about the same amount (not exactly the same) and stitching over the folds one at a time until I reached the end of the strip.

           

 

I had planned to attach the pleats to a shade slipcover made with the drop cloth, but when I finished the pleats, I liked them as is.  Plus this way I was finished!  I thought the frayed upper edge added a nice rustic touch, so I just hot glued the pleat to the bottom of the shade without finishing it.

Then I took the lamp stand out to the backyard and spray painted it with my trusty Rustoleum Heirloom White.  A couple of hours later – voila!  My old lamp is now a new lamp!