I am almost embarrassed at how easy this is to do, and am questioning if this is blog worthy. But, a few years ago I didn’t realize this was possible, so maybe I can inspire someone else out there. In the summer of 2011, I was pregnant with my son. His nursery is decorated in sock monkeys. I spent that summer making his crib bedding and decorating his nursery before I returned to teaching in the fall. As I was adding the finishing touches to his room, I decided I wanted a sock monkey lamp. Now, I’m sure today that would be easy to find, but a few years ago, sock monkeys weren’t as abundant as they are today. I’d like to think I inspired their comeback, but that probably isn’t the case. Anyhow, I had leftover fabric from his quilt, and decided, “what the heck”. Searching the craft aisle at Walmart, I came across this-

Messy? YES! But, it does the job, and 3 years later, his lampshade still looks as good as new.

OK, back to the current project. Thanks to winning the “end of bolt JACKPOT” at fabric.com, I had extra of the aqua paisley fabric used for the throw pillows on the bed. I purchased the lamp base ($19.99) and the shade ($9.99) from Lowes.

First, I ironed the fabric to remove the wrinkles, and then I layer that flat on my work surface and put the shade in the middle. I used 2 clothes pins to make sure that the fabric would fit around the shade and all areas would be covered. Then, I sprayed a small section of the shade with the spray adhesive and used my hand to press the fabric secure. I worked my way around the shade until the ends of the fabric were almost touching.

Next, I cut one side even and sprayed that down flat. Then, I carried the whole thing over to my ironing board and ironed the second end to hide the raw edge. On my son’s lamp I didn’t do this, and it looks fine, but I wanted this to look a little nicer. When the edge was ironed, I sprayed that down.

Next, I cut around the top of the lampshade leaving between .5 and 1 inch clearance. Once that was cut, I sprayed in sections and folded that edge over. I repeated the process for the bottom of the shade, again leaving between .5 and 1 inch. Not sure why, but this is where my hands got REALLY messy.

FYI- soap did nothing to get the mess off my hands. I ended up putting some rubbing alcohol on a towel and that helped get the goop off. I then washed again (and again) with warm soapy water. But, the mess was worth it. I am really happy with how this turned out. It looks great in the room. I can’t wait to get the room painted and see it 100% finished. Well, not 100%… I still plan to add the decorative nails to the headboard, and the jury is still out as to what to do for window treatments.