DIY lamp shade

I am trying my hand at posting my first DIY project...just for the sake of pinterest. Haha.

I wish I could take credit for this brilliant idea, but alas I cannot. I stole the idea from my co-worker's super talented wife Heidi. Ready to get started? Let's go!

First, just take any ordinary, lifeless lamp you have laying around. I have had this lamp for approximately 10 years and have hardly used it. I knew I wanted a lamp in my new craft room, but this lamp just wasn't gonna cut it.
Next, cut several strips of fabric. The length of the fabric and width of the fabric depends on how big you want your strips to be and how thick your lampshade is. I used some fabric I had off of a jelly roll, so I believe they measured about 2.5" tall. I just folded the strips in half (with the raw edges meeting in the middle) and ironed them to keep them flat. If you were an over achiever and/or less lazy than me, you can actually sew the wrong sides together to form a tube that you will press flat. Next, just use your sewing machine to sew right down the middle of the strips, pleating every once in a while. Please, there is no need to pin. Just relax and make pleats as you go.

Next, get a hot glue gun and glue those pleated strips to your lampshade. Super easy!

Once your lampshade is covered, feel free to add some awesome fabric flowers, leaves and/or buttons to the lampshade with hot glue. I added one large pleated flower and two smaller fabric roses (which I just made up because none of the tutorials online made sense to me), then threw in a few leaves and glued some sparkly things to the flower center.

All in all, I am very pleased with how it turned out! My fabric was a little crazy, and I would probably make another one with less patterns and/or more muted fabric.

Now, go decorate a lamp shade...I dare you!

{Happy Crafting}