Fabric shopping can be a serious business. This week I took it to the extreme, using a day's annual leave and crossing many counties in the search for material. Actually, it was really a girls' day out but let's not get too diverted from the fact that I got to spend about an hour or so in a big warehouse of a shop surrounded by gorgeous fabrics. I was like a kid in a sweet shop. Well, for the fabric-lovers out there, what do you think?
This represents only about a third of the stock
Welcome to the Christmas section!
I have been once before and was, initially, totally overwhelmed before getting a bit carried away. On that occasion I came out with fabric for three summer skirts and a whole pile of fabrics for countless other unknown projects, many of which have come to fruition.
So what and where is this fabric emporium? May I introduce you to Hansons in Sturminster Newton. And they don't just sell fabric. They have everything for knitting and crochet and some paper crafts too. It may be rare that you are in the neighbourhood but I highly recommend a visit if you are.
Have you ever struggled to find just the right lampshade to finish off a newly decorated room or to give an old lamp base a new lease of life? Then I have just the thing for you. Make your own!
You'll need a kit but they are available on-line and are not only easy to use but give a very professional finish leaving you with a totally unique lampshade and a huge sense of achievement. In fact, I was so pleased with the results when I made my first lampshade, I went on to make two more!
The first was a joint Craft Club effort, with five of us tackling it together. We had all brought our selected fabric and, in some cases trimmings, and someone had done a bulk order of kits, making it a bit cheaper.
The kit comes with the top and bottom metal rings of the shade, a self-adhesive plastic sheet which forms the drum wall that you stick to your chosen fabric (or paper - wallpaper works well), some super-strong double-sided tape, a small plastic tool, and excellent set of step-by-step instructions complete with photos. There's even a video which is great to give you the general idea before you start:
They say it can be done single-handed - the video even proves it - but I have to say I've not completed any of my three projects without an extra pair of hands to help when rolling the fabric onto the metal rings, so don't say I didn't warn you! I also cut the fabric a bit longer than the plastic sheet on one of the short ends - the width of the double-sided tape to be exact. I then fold this edge over, sticking it with some spare double-sided tape, so that you don't get any fraying fabric edges where the drum edges join (although this isn't necessary if you are using paper for your shade.) Don't be tempted to fold over too much or it will show on the inside.
I started off with a 20cm drum shade as I had a small piece of silk left over from trimming the guest room curtains, but the rest of the crafty ladies tackled the 30cm drum shades. We were so excited with the end results we even posed for a silly photo!
I then decided to make a shade for an old Habitat lamp that had long ago had its shade banished to a charity shop. I hope you agree that it now has a new lease of life.
You can just see the result of the folded edge here
My latest project was completed last weekend and was inspired by a beautiful gift. A friend of a friend gave me a present of two pieces of beautiful fabric. One just screamed "make me into a lampshade!" It is heavily embroidered in in shades of grey, silver and black. The long stitches of the embroidery does mean that, when cut, they leave fairly long threads so I did tidy around the rolled edges with some latex fabric glue to hold them in place.
The only problem is, I'm now seriously considering getting new sofas because my old, saggy green ones really don't go with the lampshade. Now, that's dedication to handmade lampshades, even if I do say so myself!
In a few weeks time, two special girls will be turning 11. Surely the perfect age to have your own sewing box? So, thanks to some expert tuition and instruction from my Mum's friend, I have made two 'surprise boxes', each to house a simple sewing kit.
Each box is about 10cm square and 12 cm high and is constructed from stiff card covered with fabric, some of which is also padded. The surprise comes when you take the lid off and all four walls fold out flat. Each wall and the inside of the lid also has a ribbon strap to anchor down various contents. In this case a small pair of scissors, a seam-ripper, a retractable tape measure, a wheel of pins and, hopefully sometime soon, some handy reels of thread.
I've seen a version with an additional, smaller box fixed to the centre of the base inside, which also has fold out flaps, but I decided to keep the centre of the box free. This is so that I could include a pin cushion and co-ordinating needle case.
This is where I get to say "here's one I prepared earlier" as I made these a year or more ago. The pin cushion is needle felted. The needle case is made from felt sheets with the white insert hand sewn in using embroidery thread and the cup cake decoration machine sewn (because I didn't trust my hand sewing to be neat enough, particularly when examined from the back!) A red button acts as the cherry on the cake, in more ways than one. In fact, I got a bit carried away with these so if anyone is in need of a pin cushion and needle case, let me know!
Now I just need to find some suitable reels of thread, preferably ones that will tuck behind the ribbon straps, to complete the boxes.
