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Recovering a Lampshade

Continuing on the same theme as my last post (lamps for my living room), I had two brass lamps I painted a pale blue color. I had found a lampshade at a thrift store for one of them, but was trying to find a shade to fit the second. On a trip to Lowe's one day I walked by this:

For a second I hesitated and thought, "Is that a mistake?" Then I realized it might have something to do with the fabric starting to fall off (which I didn't care about because I was going to replace the fabric anyway). Luckily it was the right shape for my lamp (some other shades I had seen were too short and looked odd with my tall, skinny lamp) and was definitely within my budget!

I brought it home and pulled off the outer fabric completely. The inner fabric was fine and I decided to leave it that way. When I got the outer fabric off the frame I laid it on top of the new fabric I was going to use and cut out two of the same shape (leaving some extra around the edges for seam allowance and for attaching to the frame).

After cutting out the two pieces I sewed them together, slipped it onto the lampshade frame and folded up the raw edges along the bottom and top openings, securing with hot glue.

After gluing I trimmed the excess and glued a strip of bias tape around the inside to cover the raw edge, folding over the end to make a nice, clean finish.

Thus completed my second living room lamp!

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I'll be linking up to these fabulous link parties:

The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Think Pink Sundays

Lamp Revamp

Hello! Long time no post, I know. I've started working full time and that has left me with very little time for anything other than work, domestic duties and time with the kids. But yesterday I actually made some time for a creative project and that inspired me to write about one of the projects I did a while back but never posted.

For a while I was frequenting thrift stores, looking for a couple of good lamps for my living room. I wanted two with nice shapes and lines, but not necessarily exactly alike as I would be painting them the same color. (I don't like to be toooo matchy-matchy.) Eventually I found a couple of nice lamps, but wanted to make one of them shorter.

See that tall skinny part at the top? I wanted that gone. I knew the lamp was put together in sections and thankfully that was one of them so it could be removed.

I started tearing the thing apart by first removing the socket. (Pulled off the top, lifted out the socket, unscrewed the wire terminals, unscrewed the base and pulled the wires out of it.)

(partly I took this photo so I would remember how to put it back together)

I removed the bottom piece of the harp (the thing the lamp shade is attached to) and unscrewed the top part of the lamp base.

There was an internal pipe (as with most lamps) that had threads only at the top and bottom. However, removing a portion of the lamp required cutting the pipe shorter (which would leave it without threads on one end), so I ended up having to purchase a replacement pipe and cut that one to the length I needed.

I took apart the sections of the lamp, cleaned, primed, painted and sealed them. Then I put them all back together.

Then I re-attached the socket. There are two different wires and two different screws to use to attach them. If you're ever replacing a lightbulb socket just remember this--

Ribbed = Silver
Smooth = Brass

I put everything back on in order like so (except with the modified base, of course)-

With the addition of a $2 thrift-store lampshade I had my new lamp. Yay!

For the second lamp I did the same painting, but altered a lampshade to more closely resemble this lampshade. (I'll post that next.)

Thanks for stopping by! (And I apologize if the sentences seem a bit disjointed and awkward. It is late, and I am very, very tired right now. :) )

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I'll be linking up to these fabulous link parties:

The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Think Pink Sundays

Today at Crafting in My Closet

Hi everyone!

I'm guest posting today over at Crafting in My Closet. My good friend Teresa (who has been my friend since before either of us were married and just so happens to be an awesomely talented seamstress) is putting on a great series all about summer fun with kids. My post is about making puzzles -- something my kids can't seem to get enough of!

Click HERE to go check it out!

Project Recycled -- Week 2

I forgot to post about round 2 of Project Recycled!

Click here and go vote for your favorite. (Should be open for voting through Friday)

Project Recycled -- First Round

The first round of the competition is up over at T-Shirt Diaries! I can't tell you which one is mine, but if you have a minute or two, head on over, check it out and vote on your favorite.

Please click here go and vote for your favorite!

Leather Obi Belt with 3D Flower

When I was making the belt for my high school reunion outfit I was rushing that day to get it finished in time to wear to the reunion. It was a little rough so I wanted to give it another shot, this time with a bit of a variation (also made using pieces of a former leather jacket). I altered the pattern for the petals and made them into a 3D flower.

I started out by making the petals of the flower. I altered the original petal design to be wider so I could fold it over and glue (using E6000 -- I'm sure there's some sort of leather glue that would be better, but I just wanted to stick with what I had on hand this time).

I altered the direction of the fold so the petals wouldn't all be exactly the same. Hint: Only use a tiny bit of glue, using too much will interfere when sewing them on to the belt.

I clamped them and let them dry overnight. Bonus = I finally found a use for the cute, tiny clamps I picked up on impulse one day -- I'm glad I did, they were exactly what I needed!

I cut out the other pieces in the same way as the previous obi belt, except with wider ties and added seam allowance around the edges of the main belt pieces.

I sewed a triangle piece to each side of the rectangular piece, making sure right sides were together, opened the seam allowance on the back side, top stitched on either side of the seam and clipped some of the excess away at the edges.

I folded over 1/2" around the outer edges and top stitched.

When transitioning from the triangular to the rectangular piece there was some excess bunched up, so I cut a small slit, close to, but not touching the edge, overlapped the sides and sewed.

Then I sewed the ties to the ends of each triangular piece.

I arranged the petals for the flower and secured them with just a tiny dab of glue. I used a spice jar (the perfect size!) to hold them down until they dried.

After the glue was dry I sewed the inner corners of the petals onto the belt.

And I had my new belt!

I really love this version of the belt. I ended up breaking three leather needles making this one, but I think it was worth it!

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I'll be linking up to these fabulous link parties:

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Make it Great Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Upcycled Awesome -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Tuesday Talent Show -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Create and Share -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Show and Share Day -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- Pity Party -- Design Dazzle -- Saturday - Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

Suede Flower Leather Obi Belt Tutorial

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday filled with gratitude, family, laughter and love! I know mine was. And now I'm fully embracing all the Christmas and holiday decorations, music, lights, projects, etc, etc. Bring it on! (Of course at the same time I'm kind of freaking out that I don't know what I'm going to do for gifts for everyone -- especially since our gift budget is basically non-existent. I think most are going to involve some stash-liquidation on my part!)

Today I also realized that I never posted about the dress and belt I made for my 10 year high school reunion. Here's the photo of the final product:

Today I'm going to share the tutorial for the leather and suede obi belt.

I started with a black leather jacket and a brown suede mini skirt I found at the thrift store on a 50% off day. (That's a great way to get leather at an affordable price, and reduce/reuse/recycle!) A while back I had cut out the lining, zippers, facings, etc and cut them into non-sewn-together pieces.

One of the things I love about leather is that it doesn't unravel or fray, so you can leave the edges raw. Of course folded and sewn edges have a more professional/finished look, but sometimes I'm just glad to be able to cut a corner here and there. :)

I started out by cutting the pieces using my quilting ruler and rotary cutter (I LOVE those things!).

Main rectangle: 5" wide x 17.5" long
(I'm tall and have a long torso, so I would suggest about 4" wide for a woman of average height. Also the length was my waist circumference in inches, divided by two, adding two inches, and adding one inch for seam allowance.)
Triangle pieces: 5" wide for 1/2", then down to a point x 12" long
(I just estimated this one, but it ended up being about 3/4 of half of my waist circumference, plus 1" for seam allowance.)
Ties: 3/8" wide x 20" and 18" long
(I totally estimated and just used the longest piece of leather I had. This is how long they ended up. One side is longer because the flower is slightly to the side and the straps tie at the center of the flower.)
Flower petals: I drew the shape of a flower petal and traced it with a fabric pencil onto the suede. I flipped the pattern over for a couple of the petals so they all would not be exactly the same shape. I cut them out on the inside of the pencil line so I wouldn't have to worry about trying to wash/rub it off.

Be sure to use leather needles. They are stronger and sharper than regular needles. I would also recommend using a thicker, stronger thread. It will help it all hold together well, and look better, too. If you have one, use a teflon or roller presser foot as well, since the suede side of leather tends to grip as it's going through the sewing machine and one of those feet will help it glide smoothly. (I didn't have one, but it still worked out pretty well, with some concerted effort.)

Start out by sewing the triangle pieces to the sides of the rectangle piece. Leather can't be pinned in the normal way, so I stuck pins straight in, inside the seam allowance (since once you put a hole in leather, even a tiny one, it won't go away).

After that, top stitch the seam on either side, both to give it a finished look and to lay the seam allowance down flat.

Then stitch all the way around the outer edge of the belt. For a more finished look you can simply fold over the edge and top stitch just like the other seam. Why didn't I do that? I have no idea... :) But if you do, be sure to add the extra width to the rectangle and triangle pieces to make sure your belt ends up the width that you want.

For the ties, trim the point off the triangle pieces to make it 3/8". Place the tie under the point, overlapping about 3/4" and sew it on by stitching back and forth several times in a straight line.

Visualize dividing the main rectangular part of the belt into thirds and place the flower petals on one of the dividing lines (so it's to one side, instead of in the middle). Glue them down with a small amount of glue (I used super glue since I needed something that would dry quickly) placed near the center of the petal, so the glue will not be in the way when you sew. (I took this photo prior to sewing, since I was testing out how it would look, and I wanted to remember the placement of the petals when it came time to sew them on)

Using a free-motion presser foot (so you can turn smoothly while sewing -- see below), sew the petals on by stitching along the inside of the edge for each one.

Source

And then you are done!

Halloween Wrap-up and Low-Key Grown-up Costumes

How was everyone's Halloween? I hope you all had a fun, safe night! We had a great time going trick-or-treating with my brother and his family. My little super heroes were so excited and ready to go.

Here's how our whole family of costumes turned out: (Please pardon the extremely goofy/lame photo... I actually hesitated posting it, but I did want to show how the grown-up costumes turned out.)

Can you tell who I'm supposed to be? Here's another hint:

Know now? Hawk Woman! Well, actually it's Hawk Girl, but my kids thought I deserved the title of woman. :) And by the way, there is a serious lack of female superheroes. It seems like most of the women are on the villain side of things...

But anyway, we had a great time and I hope you all did too!

P.S. I love Halloween for the experience of dressing up and going trick-or-treating for the kids, but I do not enjoy the candy. It makes my kids even crazier than they are normally (even with just one piece per day) and it's very hard for me to resist as well. I'm very temped, especially after watching the video below, to just throw it all out. But the hard part is helping my kids to understand that just because something tastes good, doesn't mean they should eat it. And I would understand peoples' arguments when they say "It's just once a year", "Let them binge and throw the rest out", "Just be sure they brush their teeth well", etc, etc, IF it really was just once a year. But the problem is the Western culture has become so saturated with sugar. It's in everything and everyone has tons of sweets for every occasion, or just daily for no reason at all. That's a major problem for many reasons.

Here's the video that has changed my perspective about sugar in a lot of ways. There's a lot to the professor's lecture, but essentially he explains how sugar is just as toxic to our bodies (i.e. our livers) as alcohol is. It also explains how sugar, NOT fat, makes people fat. (The whole "low fat" craze is completely wrong). If you have the time to watch it's an amazing video!