Slip Cover for Lampshade Tutorial

After a bit of "lamp shade covering issues"... I've finally gotten down to work and FINISHED my thrift store lamp shade, re-do!

My first issue that I had, before, was that I chose a fabric that had a straight pattern.

 Although I LOVED this fabric,...this made it VERY difficult, with a cone shaped shade, to get the pattern straight.

Drum Shade, would be perfect for this print!

So...off I went to find some fabric that had a pattern that didn't need to necessarily be perfectly lined up.

ANOTHER concern I had, when redoing this shade was...

"What if I want to change it later?  Will I have to RIP apart the shade, to get new fabric over it?"

That sounds like a lot of work.

QUE smart Hubby:  

"Why don't you just make a skirt type cover to just slide OVER it?

Then you can switch it out if you want."

GENIUS!!!!!!!!!  

Why hadn't I SEEN or thought of this before?

oh how i love this creative man :)

So... Here's how I did it.

First I rolled my lamp shade out on the fabric like this and ran a pencil along it, as I went...

Started from the seam that was already in the lamp, and rolled it till I got to the seam again.

(hope this makes sense)

(it's the top and bottom line... the middle one is a mess up... lol)

Then I cut the tracing out... leaving an additional inch on all sides, for sewing.

Rolled the shade in the fabric... to make sure the fit was good...

"IT'S GOOD!"

(imagine a sports radio announcer voice here)

Then I sewed a seam along the top of the pattern... Rolled the shade back in the fabric

(turned inside out)... and pinned up the middle... like so.

(do you see the seam at the bottom?)

Then I sewed this middle up ... and cut off the extra fabric on the edge.

This is what it looks like flipped right-side out.

Slipped it back over the shade...

And made a tiny mark where I was going to sew the bottom seem.

(I tried to do a light mark in RED, so you could see it... but it's still hard to see. lol, sorry)

Then I sewed a seam along the red mark...

K... Slip cover finished!...

Now...I took some twill tape (you can use black ribbon of any kind, too) and glued it along the top of the shade, where people can see it.

This part IS more permanent, but I figured, I would always use fabric that had some black in it, 

so pick a color of ribbon you can use with multiple slip covers

glued it along the top edge, and then pushed it under with a bit of glue as well.

So it looks like this.

I didn't even bother with the bottom, because it will be covered.

(please don't mind the sewing mess in the background. lol)

Slip the cover over the shade...

and TA-DA!

Finished!

I also sewed a simple white cord cover, since the cord was an ugly dark cream color.

And there you have it!  An interchangeable lamp shade cover!

You could change this out with the seasons or holidays!

I love it on this little table in the entryway.

I think I might give it a boost with some kinda of cute crate or books or something, but till then...

it's sittin' pretty, right here :)