Tuesday 1 May 2018

Change - upcycling a lampshade with embroidery!

This month, the Endeavourer's challenge is Change or Transformation.  I've had that kicking around in the back of my head these past weeks so, when mum was throwing out some old lampshades,  I thought hang on, I'll have a go at upcycling them. 
I snipped the threads holding the pleats together and did my best to iron them flat - quite tricky ironing a curved surface!
I spent quite a bit of time doodling flowers, somehow my doodles are always with quilting in mind so as many continuous lines as possible and a 2D flat surface is always the result.  I eventually settled on a big bloom with some leaves and a fancy centre.
I used a blue water erasable marker to trace around the outside and redraw my design on the lampshade.
I was torn between colour families and settled on the warmer grouping though I think the bright pink I would change if I was making again.  The stitches are herringbone for the leaves, chain stitch for the lines and french knots for the dots.
There was a problem with bleeding of the blue marker even though I thoroughly wet the lampshade 3 times.  One of my work colleagues advised me to try green fairy liquid - swears by it for its stain removing qualities (the shade was a bit grubby in places too so I thought why not?)
It worked a treat! 
I let it to dry in the windowsill and and now I know the blue marks are gone and this can actually be used I'm going to add a little bit of vine stem to it too to lessen all that white.

So this was the inspiration for the make I eventually did for the challenge - a quilted cushion.
To read more about the cushion or the Endeavourer's challenge please visit the blog page here.  My project was a small one this time around as I got quite distracted drawing flowers, making paper flower, framing cut paperwork and adding wallpaper to our hall underneath the dogs hall of fame!  Procrafternation at its best!



14 comments:

  1. I just saw another tip yesterday about adding backing soda to water when removing the 'water soluble' blue marker, so the dish soap seems like a smart idea, too. I love how the lamp shade upcycle helped with the pillow inspiration. They look great!

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  2. I would never have thought of trying baking soda! I heard of one lady where the blue marker was absorbed by the white thread used to quilt and it stayed in the thread but not the quilt so it seems some fabrics can be tricky to find a removable marker to work with.

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  3. I enjoyed seeing the process behind your lampshade upcycle. I imagine it must have been tricky to sew with the curves and gathered fabric but the end result looks great. I also love your cushion. I always use frixon pens these days and iron to erase. I've heard they can show back in sub zero temperatures but if our house gets that cold I'll have other things to worry about! My most recent useful discovery was finding you can use kitchen roll instead of a pressing cloth to iron over delicate fabrics :)

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    1. It was a bit fiddly but holding it between the knees seemed to work! I have a few frixion pens and have had no trouble with them - some people don't like them as they leave a trace in the fabric. I've never had a problem ironing them out but have had a problem getting rid of pencil from time to time on embroidery. I chanced the blue water pen and was very surprised to see how much it bled. Goes to show always test first, I guess!

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  4. This is so cute, you really turned a regular lamp shade into something truly special.

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    1. Thanks a million Cheryl. I'm thinking simple little daisies for the smaller one. Then I have to go fin a lamp to fit them on!

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  5. Wow...these are both awesome. Embroidery is so pretty.

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    1. Thanks a million Anja, a fun small project that took a bit longer than expected in the end!

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  6. You really made that lampshade your own Ruth. I imagine stitching it wasn't that easy either!

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    1. I mustn't have had the tension quite right Fiona as it is a little more oval than circle but you'd have to really be up close to notice!

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  7. You are very brave to embroider a lampshade. Both lampshade and the cushion look lovely. The wallpaper under the dogs hall of frame is fabulous, I love it.

    -Soma

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    1. Thanks Soma! It was one of those contact backed ones so up in an hour and really makes the hallway look so much cleaner. Reminds me of the beach and that's my favourite place to walk the dogs so a happy feeling when I come in the front door!

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  8. I love a bit of upcycling! Both lampshade and cushion are very pretty.

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  9. Thanks Catherine! I don't have a lamnp to fit it onto so that'll have to come next!

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