This project begins with a lampshade I bought on Ebay for $29 from a lady who advertised it as "odd". And odd it is! When it arrived, I was stunned to learn that the wire frame was made of copper. That's really unusual. I can't quite get a sense of how old it is but judging by the orange fabric I'd guess the 1970's or perhaps even the 60's. The shape is decagonal (10 sided) and the top and bottom openings are surprisingly wide.
Using this strange old frame, I decided to upcycle an old suit to create a hanging lamp. This shade is number 4 in an installment project of 7 small shades.
After I removed the (ahem) lovely orange, I got to work wrapping the wire frame with seam binding tape, to create a surface upon which to sew the lining and eventual fabric.
Here's a shot of the nearly-finished lining. For this shade, I re-purposed a suit from 1997 that was worn to my wedding by my step-mother. While the marriage didn't last, the suit sure did. I lined the shade with the lining from the suit. Normally, I use polyester or silk to line my shades and I learned from using this lining that I'm not fond of acetate blends. It is difficult to stretch and it likes to fray on the edges the second it is cut. Good to know!
The suit, a 1997 Jessica McClintock, is shown here prior to meeting with the full wrath of my scissors. You can see that it has long strands of beaded and sequined applique running down each side of the jacket. I carefully removed them, then salvaged the outer layer of cotton/poly jacquard as well as that pesky acetate lining.
Working away, I lost the presence of mind to take a photo of the process for sewing on the outer fabric. By the time I realized it, I had already started to trim the wires with a narrow white gimp. Here, you can see a split in the top of the wire frame. This is goodness for me because although this frame is outfitted with a clip-style bulb holder, I intend to make this a hanging lamp, and that split lets me get a cord in there.
Here's midway though sewing the beaded trim onto the frame. I don't normally use pre-strung beads and instead prefer to string my own, but since this shade will hang I need the entire piece to be lightweight. Pre-strung acrylics are about 70% lighter than glass and metal beads. I really wanted a stronger effect than just a single strand of beads for this shade, so I doubled the strand before sewing it on. I folded it across and used a baste stitch to hold it.
After painstakingly cutting the applique into five usable pieces, I attached them to alternating panels of the shade and finished the gimp trim.
I'm not sure why, but this one is difficult to photograph. It's and odd shade of pink, looking almost peach in the pictures. Overall, the shade is ultra-feminine, very pink, has a nice flocked jacquard pattern, and a lovely sheen in the correct light.
