traditional Archives -

I was recently asked to recover a traditional lampshade to go in an Art Deco living room. I just thought I’d show you some photos of how the lampshade developed, because it really did develop over time as various fringing and braiding was chosen for the design. It had been bought, along with the stand (not photographed here), from eBay, and was definitely a bit of a floral granny shade with a gold tassel trim. Nevertheless, it was a lovely shape with scalloped top and bottom rings:

From here on the design was down to the client along with her Interior Designer, Kate Lovejoy. I have to admit it wasn’t my style, but I also became quite attached to the finished lampshade – especially after working hard attaching so many trims and fringing! It was also great to make something a bit different, with strict instructions to ‘bling it up’!

The body of the lampshade is made from pink herringbone tweed which I love. Here’s a shot of it pinned to one side of the lampshade frame:

Next I added purple braiding to the top ring of the lampshade (this is a good close-up of the fabric too, oh and a gilhoolie tag with matching purple ribbon added at the end):

Followed by two layers of different length fringing in grey and purple:

Then more purple braiding on top of the fringing and a silver sequin trim (the bling):

Finally, the finished lampshade in all it’s burlesque glory:

I’ll post a photo of it in-situ soon hopefully; it doesn’t really go in my conservative looking dining room does it?! I was sorry to hand it over in the end though, maybe I should think about adding a bit of bling more often…hmmmm…

I finished restoring my big empire lampshade today and I thought I’d put some photos on here to show the before – when it was a really tired, ugly lampshade I discovered in the back room of a local antique shop. To during – from binding the rings and struts to pinning the fabric to the frame to stitching the fabric onto the frame and finally hand-stitching the trim to the bottom ring (no glue or double-sided sticky tape here!)

I haven’t added up the number of hours involved but it hasn’t been quick, that’s for sure. However, as with all these projects, I have learnt a lot and definitely become much more efficient at the whole process.

This is going to be a post full of photos of the various stages involved, just so you get an idea.

First, the before shot:

A very dusty, swathed pink-ish crepe satin cover with a glued on trim at the top and tassels at the bottom – hmmm, no wonder it had been overlooked for so long!

Then during:

The stripped frame – in excellent condition, couldn’t believe my luck!

Binding the frame and struts (nice and easy bit) and finally a choice of fabric for the cover, after lots of deliberation and searching:

Stretching and pinning the fabric to the bound frame, see the pins – ouch! (This was then repeated for the silk lining as the fabric behaves differently):

The next step is to mark the strut lines and then remove the fabric and sew it to the other side using a sewing machine. It is then carefully eased over the frame; hopefully it fits like a glove after a bit more pinning.

Below is a close-up of the lovely streetly stitch used to attach the fabric to the top and bottom rings, comes naturally now!:

Preparing to stitch the tassel trim to the bottom ring, on a lovely sunny day in the garden (you can see the hand-made flip over bias strip I had already sewn onto the top ring):

And finally:

Drum roll please…. the finished lampshade, phew!:

I love it, really pleased with the final result. I may have to decorate a room around it though and still have to paint the base but I think sanding and painting will be a doddle compared to all the pinning and hand-stitching! The good news is I now have my first paid commission through an Interior Designer for a hand-stitched empire lampshade like this. I know what I’ll be doing next week… more details to follow…

Tag: traditional

Bling it up!

Lampshade restoration – before, during and the end result…

First, the before shot:

Then during:

And finally: