Because I found myself with so much time on my hands (you know, what with the persistent morning sickness, yard sale, Vintage Bazaar, beginning of school, and nursery planning) I decided to do a few projects that I’ve had stacked up on my to-do list for some time now, mostly with an eye towards offering them at the Vintage Bazaar.

First, let me say that I have gotten over my fear of spray paint. Ya’ll, I’m spray painting anything that doesn’t run away from me, which, in this heat, could include one of my particularly lethargic cats. Here’s the first project.

I have many vintage earrings that are orphans and widows and/or broken, so I’ve been wanting to try this out for a while as well:

I realized I had two pink Nebraska souvenir plates and just had to do one more two-tier project.

Here’s a post on recovering lampshades that I did last Fall for BackGarage, when Katherine was kind enough to let me get my feet wet in the blogosphere by doing some guest posts on her blog. I thought I would re-post in light of my recent post regarding my new lampshades.

Great merciful heavens, it has been dark and gloomy in Chicago lately – Sunday’s lovely weather notwithstanding. This seemed like a really good time to dive into the metric ton of old lampshades I have lying around, earmarked for recovering. There’s nothing like lamplight to warm up a room now that the Chicago fall is settling in. I’ve been lucky and  have found several charming old lamps lately – especially chunky glass ones, of which I am particularly fond – but they’re rarely partnered with attractive shades. My daily walk through Andersonville takes me right by the windows of White Attic, where the most amazing, graphically colorful lampshades are displayed. I started wondering how hard it would be to recover lampshades, and a new collection was born.

This is what happens when I decide to start a new project: I start collecting. And collecting. And then I collect some more.  And then I start thinking of other things that I need for the project, like glue, fabric, and information. Years pass, and my friends start secretly talking about me behind my back, wondering what the hell is up with the pile of old lampshades in my apartment.

This project was particularly difficult for me to dive into, because it involved using some of my stores of fabric. I have a thing for fabric. I love vintage textiles, tablecloths, bedspreads, curtains, and so on. I’m always looking for a way to display them in a useful manner, but then when it’s time to cut into them, I balk. Not this time! I was going to start whittling down my stack of lampshades, and my vintage fabric treasures were my ticket to success.  This is how I did it.

1.  I have a great article from an old Martha Stewart magazine that tells how to make lampshades from scratch by buying the lampshade frames and something called “self-adhesive styrene.” I did a bit of investigating, and it appeared that it would be quite costly, so I figured I would start by recovering lampshades already built by someone more diligent than myself. I found lampshades at yard sales and thrift stores, such as The Brown Elephant, Village Thrift, and the Salvation Army. I didn’t spend more than $3 on any of them. Things to consider while shopping for shades to recover: only white or cream-colored shades will work, since any older patterns will shine through once the lamp is turned on. Also, check for brittleness; older shades crack quite easily. The shade should be in very good shape, without dents or tears.

2.  The fabrics I used on the two smaller shades were purchased in thrift stores; the fabric on the largest shade is a micro-suede that I bought at the Textile Discount Outlet for $9.95 a yard. (By the way, do you know about the Textile Discount Outlet? It’s at 2121 W. 21st Street in Chicago, and it is fabulous. Three stories of the biggest selection of fabric and trim that you have ever seen in your life. I have rarely noticed any fabric priced over $14.95/yard; the majority of it is under $10 a yard.) You can also use any other fabric you like – curtains, sheets, anything that has a print and catches your eye. I even have a skirt with a wild graphic print that I plan to use for a shade. I used a suede, a chintz, and a cotton print for these three shades, and I didn’t notice that one worked better then another.

3.  The first step is to create a pattern with your lampshade. You do this by spreading out a huge piece of paper, laying the lampshade on its side – seam down – and rolling the shade across the paper. (Kraft paper works well, and you can buy a huge roll of it for $9.95 at Home Depot. I use it for many different things around the house, so it’s really nice to have a roll on hand.) Trace the top edge of the shade until the seam is in the same position as when you started (i.e. a full revolution). This next part is vital: don’t lift the shade up when you get back around to the seam. Instead, without moving the shade, move your pencil to its bottom edge. Then roll the shade backwards along the same path, and trace the bottom edge until the shade is back to its starting position. If you move or lift the shade, you’ll mess up the pattern, so be very careful.

4. Cut the pattern out, allowing an inch or two extra on the sides. This is important, because you’ll need that extra fabric to fold over the top and bottom edges of the shade in order to leave a clean edge.

5. Pin the paper pattern to the fabric. Do not be lazy and try to cut the fabric around the pattern without pinning. This will not work. I cannot tell you how I know this, but trust me. Also, if you are using a fabric with a print, make sure you are cutting the fabric so that the print is right-side up. Again, I cannot tell you how I know this, I just do.

6. Do not use your favorite piece of fabric for your first lampshade, for you will make mistakes and ruin your favorite piece of fabric. Let us pause for a brief moment while I weep.

7. Once you get the fabric cut, you are going to take it outside, OUTSIDE, I tell you, and coat the back of it with a spray adhesive.  I used 3M  multipurpose adhesive . It got over everything. I had it in my hair. I had it in my eyelashes. I’m still peeling it off of my fingertips. You do not want to spray this in your house. Also, beware of sudden changes in wind direction. The good news is that IT WORKS. So well that your fabric will stick to itself. I would recommend getting an extra pair of hands your first time through on this, because it’s not easy to make the fabric do what you want it to do once you’ve sprayed the adhesive. I found that the easiest thing to do was to lay the fabric (print down, glue up) on a clean surface while you move on to the next step. (Edited to add: after a little experience, I discovered an easier way — spray a small portion of the fabric at a time — say, four to six inches, at most — adhere to the shade and then move on to the next section. Much less unwieldy.)

8.   It took some trial and error, but I think the easiest way to get the fabric on the lampshade is to roll the lampshade onto the sticky fabric, much like you did when you made your pattern. The tricky part here is to make sure that you’re rolling it on as straight as possible, leaving the fabric overlapping equally on the top and bottom. The first lampshade had me tearing my hair out, because I kept running out of fabric on the top of the shade and having excess on the bottom. It is hard at first and quite frustrating, but, by my third attempt, I had already gotten better at it. The good news is that the spray adhesive doesn’t bond permanently right away; if you need to, you can peel the fabric up and reposition it. Even reapplying the adhesive twice on the first shade didn’t seem to interfere with the eventual bonding of the fabric. The spray adhesive, as it turns out, is a very forgiving glue.

9.  Now smooth the fabric over the shade, because there will be air bubbles. Then smooth the fabric some more. And when you’re through smoothing the fabric, smooth it a little bit more. Let me just say that my first shade attempt is currently sitting on my kitchen table with tons of air bubbles in it. Smooth, people, until your fingertips are bleeding from your efforts.

10. If you went a little crazy and have three or four inches hanging over the edges of the shade, trim those to no more than two inches. You want the inside of the shade to be neat, as it will be visible from certain angles. The light shining through your shade will also illuminate any messy work.

11.  I used Aleene’s Fabric Fusion to fold the edges over and glue them to the inside of the shade. Once again, my handy-dandy binder clips  held the fabric in place while the glue dried. (I’m recommending a new marketing campaign for the binder clip folks – “Binder Clips: A Crafter’s Right Hand.”) Drying  is a lengthy process; I would clip the fabric for at least an hour to make sure it bonds. (Edited to add — I discovered that it looks much neater to leave even less fabric to fold over — just enough to tuck under the little roll on the inside of the shade. It gives a much more finished appearance.)

And there you have it. I could have used trim on the shades – again, Textile Discount Outlet has bazillions of trim options – but  I decided to go simple with them the patterns were pretty busy. Also, fringe and ball trim tend to gather dust, and I haven’t quite figured out how to combat that.

Three down, fourteen thousand to go… bring on the dark Chicago winter! I’ll be ready.

Originally posted on BackGarage on October 20, 2009.

I’m putting the final touches on this…

Can’t. Stop. Decal-ing. Glass. Jars.

So. I bought this very cool, very old chimney cabinet over the summer at a yard sale. It’s been sitting in the garage, and two days before I hauled everything down to Arkansas to open the booth, I decided I wanted to try and take it with me. So I slapped a coat of paint on it. Very bad move on my part. I was in a huge hurry, so I didn’t sand it. I think I primed it at least, but I can’t say for sure. Plus, I loathe the color I used. Pink? What was I thinking? And it’s the only Sherwin Williams paint I’ve ever disliked — it’s their enamel paint. Which is still latex, I think, but a high gloss (which I’ve decided I hate on furniture) and really thick and goopy. In the end, it looked like crap (of course), so I ended up leaving it behind. Now it’s my next project and I spent all weekend sanding it down.

I am loving my rotary sander. I used coarse grit paper at first, then moved to medium, then fine. That cabinet is smoooooooth now. But I’m in a quandry. Sanding it down revealed the most beautiful layers of colors: the pink the I misguidedly put on, then a yellow, then a green — the latter both beautiful vintage shades. It looks like this now:

My latest before and after.

I bought a pair of end tables (bedside tables, maybe?) from the Brown Elephant on Clark about a month ago. I feel like I worked on these for three years.  In reality, it’s been about two-and-a-half weeks. You know, an hour here, an hour there, not 24-hours-a-day. I decided I was going to take this nice and slow and be patient. Old method: hurriedly slap a coat of primer on a piece of furniture, barely let it dry before putting the first coat of paint on, then, MAYBE if I was feeling particularly generous with my time, a second coat of paint. But with these, I was determined to do a better job. I started by actually sanding them. You know what’s NOT fun? Sanding on your back porch in Chicago when it’s eight degrees outside.  But it had to be done — check out what the tops looked like:

Here’s my favorite part:

The knob! I used a pair of glass door knobs that I’ve had forever, just sitting around in a drawer. I had the hardest time deciding whether or not to use it, because I was afraid that they would look weird and out-sized on the drawers — plus, I had to drill what seemed like a massive hole in the drawer to screw them in, and I  wasn’t sure what I could have done had they not worked out in the end. But I ended up LOVING them, and I have two more pairs of door knobs stashed away that I can’t wait to use.

[Quick side trip: Here's one thing that helped me be more patient with this: my biggest problem is that I get bored, and want to hurry the process along. Last year, I started listening to audio books on my iPod while exercising; now I've started listening to them while I'm doing EVERYTHING -- any chore of any kind.  Right now I'm listening to Under the Dome (Stephen King) and have Game Change all ready to go when I get through that one (political gossip -- MY FAVORITE). I have a subscription to Audible -- I think I pay somewhere around $23/month for three downloads a month. Your library may also have downloads available online -- Chicago Public Libraries has a pretty huge selection that I use, too. I highly recommend it -- sometimes, it can even make me exercise when I might not have otherwise.]

So. On to the next project. Time is ticking…the Vintage Bazaar is right around the corner!

One last look…

I have been working on a project for over a week now! It’s almost ready to have its picture taken so I can brag on my amazing talent. But not quite. Here’s a little preview of what’s to come later this week.

One week later and it occurs to me to post photos of some calendar art I’ve actually managed to frame instead of photos of the shameful stack of calendars I’ve been meaning to frame. You know, so you don’t think I’m JUST a hoarder. Sometimes, I actually manage to do something with the crap I collect!

That mirror, by the way, was purchased at a yard sale for $4. FOUR DOLLARS. I spotted it from the car and screeched to a halt, leaped out, and asked how much — and about fainted when the lady said $4. It’s about three-and-a-half feet tall and heavy as heck. The gesso at the top is chipped somewhat but I absolutely adore it.