DIY Ruffle Lamp Shade

This is the first of several posts all about Julia’s nursery. My vision for her room developed from the one she had for a few months in Italy. Soft, feminine, vintage, travel, and chic are all words that I wanted to incorporate into her space, and I think I accomplished that. I’m excited to show you what her room looks like, but first I want to show you a few DIY projects I worked on to get it to where it is today.

I never knew I’d care so much about a silly lamp shade. I mean, it’s a lamp shade, for crying out loud! But there I was, staring at a normal shade to sit on top of my old Eiffel Tower lamp I’ve had for ages, and I knew “normal” just wasn’t going to cut it. So I did what any normal blogger/crafter would do and took to Pinterest.

And then I saw it: my inspiration for her lamp shade.

The blogger answered questions about the project in the comments, but didn’t really give any directions in the post, so I had to wing it. Luckily, it was super easy and didn’t have any sewing involved. I took pictures along the way just in case you want to make something similar. Oh, and you can definitely make this during nap time!

Supplies needed:
lamp shade
hot glue gun
scissors 
ruffle fabric trim (around 8-10 yards)
flowers (optional)

Directions:
I started at the very top because I was picky about the placement for that particular row of ruffles, but for the second and subsequent layers, I started at the bottom and worked
my way up. It was easier that way so I wouldn’t have to mess with
holding a ruffle up each time. The whole process, while slightly tedious, was very easy and
went by pretty quickly.

I wrapped the trim around the shade where I wanted it to go, and cut it just where the ends overlapped each other. Then I got hot glued the top of the trim to the lamp shade. I only used a few inches of glue at a time and pressed it into the fabric of the shade, rotating it as I went along. Then I just repeated that technique for each layer until the plain lamp shade evolved into pretty, flowing layers.

The seams weren’t always even, but that was okay with me. I just trimmed them when I finished and I make sure the seams face the wall.

To pull the whole look together, I hot glued some flowers (they had stickers on the back from the scrapbook section at Hobby Lobby), onto the lamp shade.

And, that’s it! It was seriously easy and I’m still totally smitten with how it turned out. I’m trying to figure out where I need another ruffle lamp shade around the house so I can make more!

*Linking up with Skip to my Lou, Monday Funday, and My Craftily Ever After