A Sweet Flower Lampshade DIY

My tweenage daughter is “dying” to make this lovely DIY flower lampshade for her room.  It will be a fun project for us to do together.  This lampshade would also look great in a spare bedroom.  As always, any color fabric you choose will look fantastic.  Using more than one color would be fun.  Thanks to The Heathered Nest for the pretty thought.

Mostly because those shades took me H.O.U.R.S. to make, but in terms of difficulty, it’s certainly not a hard project at all.  You just have to embrace the monotony of cutting out hundreds of fabric circles.  Here’s the how-to.

STEP 1. BUY A CIRCLE CUTTING TOOL.  Do not pass go without purchasing a circle cutting tool.  Or go ahead, and try this with your scissors, but don’t say I didn’t warn you  This is the one I have:  It’s the OLFA rotary cutter.  Will run you about $14-16.  There’s even a YouTube video (actually a page of them) on how to use it.  Watch it before you start your circles.

STEP 2: BUY YOUR FABRIC AND CUT (And cut.  And keep cutting):  As far as fabric goes, that’s obviously a matter of taste, but keep in mind, this is going on a lampshade, and the purpose of a lamp, of course, is to let in light, so very light and sheer fabrics work best.  The fabric I used is a very light, inexpensive polyester semi-sheer.  Ran about $2-3/yard, and I purchased 2 yards for two drum shades that measure 14″ in diameter x 10″high.  If the material you choose is also inexpensive, buy a little more yardage just to be on the safe side.

Now, decide on the size of your circles.  My flowers are made of six circles each, the largest diameter being 6″ (the largest my circle cutter will make), and the smallest being approx. 1″ in diameter.

Images from The Heathered Nest.

For full instructions visit The Heathered Nest.