#lampshademaking

3 days ago
5 min

Tips and fixes to help prevent and resolve Lampshade Seam Issues

Once in a while, you may experience an issue with your lampshade seam. It could be due to the type or thickness of the fabric you’re using for your outer shade and whether you’re making lampshades to sell, or just for your own home, it’s tricky to know what to do. In this blog post, we’ve compiled tried and tested techniques and tips for use on the kind of lampshade seam issues our fabulous Facebook Lampshade Makers group experience, to help you solve them too. Caving Seam Wh

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Sep 15
4 min

#memadeshade August Winner - Jane Ellison Textiles

This month's winning #memadeshade takes its maker, @janellisontextiles, straight back to her 70s childhood, with its striking retro inspired orange and mustard colour combination! Huge congratulations to Jane, who initially made the shade as a bespoke design for her best friend, but luckily had enough fabric to make this one too. We love how it shouts Jane's 'modern retro' vibe! Find out more about Jane, her design style and her eco-conscious business choices, in our #memade

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Sep 6
5 min

Back to Lampshade Making School - Tips & Techniques to Create Amazing Lampshades

Whether you need a quick refresher course or are completely new to lampshade making, today we’re taking you 'Back to Lampshade School' with a post filled with tips, techniques and insider knowledge ensuring every handmade lampshade you make is truly top-of-the-class! From using a kitchen mug to our top taping tips, there's no doubt our quick and easy lessons will take your lampshade making to the next level. We can feel a few gold stars coming on! Preparation Press, press and

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Sep 1
3 min

Soft Shade Making Series - Making a Gimbal Cover

Getting to grips with the professional finishing touches is what really makes a handmade soft lampshade sing! Falling straight into this category is making a gimbal cover or tidy to sit around the gimbal arms. This tiny detail, as well as serving a functional purpose, can also be a noticeable highlight adding extra personality to your soft shade. Follow the tutorial below to learn how to make and for a gimbal cover or tidy for the next steps in your Soft Shade Making journey.

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Aug 24
5 min

Introducing Dannells Europe

As we launch our new dedicated European website, Dannells.eu, we get to know the people behind our European operation, Malgosia and her husband Nick and how they plan to expand our European market. Read on to find out how they became Dannells Distributors, the skills they are bringing to the new venture and their favourite Dannells products. Hi there! We’re very excited about the launch of Dannells EU. How did you get involved? Malgosia: Our adventure with Dannells started in

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Aug 24
3 min

#memadeshade July Winner

Brightening up people's living spaces is the mission of Jacqui, founder of @thelampshadehouse and her winning #memadeshade lampshade certainly fits her brief! Made as a commission for a customer, this 30cm floral drum shade is bold and bright and, we imagine, very at home in Singapore, which is where @thelampshadehouse is based. Our huge congratulations go to Jacqui and her £100 voucher to be spent at Dannells.com, is on its way. You can find out more about Jacqui and the @t

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Aug 11
4 min

New Lampshade Shape - How to make a Y-Frame Lampshade

New, novel and completely unique, our Y-Frame Lampshade ring set will certainly add a point of difference to your room! A shade like no other, the three arms create the Y or propeller shape, which is a fantastic vehicle for a plain fabric which enhances the unusual shape. For double the impact, pair with an eye-catching pattern! Read on for more information on the materials you need and our step-by-step tutorial packed with plenty of hints and tips, to help you make this quir

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Aug 9
6 min

Meet the Maker - Hillview Soft Furnishings

Switching career to find a more flexible role, Ellen, of Hillview Soft Furnishings is a City & Guilds trained curtain and blind maker and soft furnisher, who has added lampshade making to her broad repertoire of furnishing skills. With a passion for sewing from being young, Ellen enjoys working closely with her customers to find creative solutions to enhance their homes to fit with their lifestyle, whether it be making them a pair of beautiful wave curtains or an oversized dr

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Aug 2
7 min

Soft Shade Making Series - Making and Fitting a Lining

Next up in our Soft Shade Making Series is how to make and fit a lining to your soft lampshade. With several styles of lining and choices of fabrics, ranging from traditional to modern, in this post we'll take you through what a lining brings to a lampshade, which shaped frames can be lined and of course detailed step-by-step instructions on how to fit your lining. Why does a lampshade need a lining? Lining your lampshade gives it a complete and professional finish, hiding a

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Jul 12
3 min

#memadeshade June Winner

June's #memadeshade winner is a stunner! Made by Stephanie of @sewcoordinateduk, this geometric gem was made as a bespoke custom shade for a customer, but it has captured everyone's imagination! Huge congratulations go to Stephanie, whose successful lampshade and cushion-making business is going from strength to strength. We're sure she'll put her prize - a £100 voucher - to good use when spending it on Dannells.com, Find out more about Stephanie and her business in our #mema

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Jul 8
5 min

Learn to Make a Lampshade at a Lampshade Making Workshop

Learning to make a lampshade doesn’t have to be a solo activity. With a huge range of creative and skill-building lampshade courses to choose from, we think you'll be spoilt for choice! Complete beginner or professional maker, find a course to suit you from our list that teach a variety of skills, from your first traditional soft lampshade or modern hard lampshade to advance your existing lampshade making skills. By soaking up the expert knowledge and advice of an experienced

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Jun 30
3 min

#memadeshade May Winner

Featuring the iconic Frida Kahlo, this month's #memadeshade winner is Bodil of @skumringstid.dk, who runs her lampshade making business in Nykøbing Sjælland, Eastern Denmark, choosing vibrant and unusual fabrics and making bespoke lampshades to suit her customer's interiors. Bold and bright, this colourful lampshade is precious not only because it won, but because one of Bodhil's customers kindly sourced the fabric for her, knowing how much she loved it! We love a happy lamps

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Jun 23
3 min

WIN a Mango Wood Floor Lamp Worth £99

Our improved wooden table and floor lamp bases are back in stock and to celebrate you can WIN a June Floor Lamp worth £99! For 2022, we’ve gone the extra mile for our beautifully carved Lamp Base designs using environmentally friendly Mangowood, which is sustainably sourced. The perfect way to display your handmade lampshade, we have a variety of table and floor lamp designs and heights, in unfinished wood, that can be painted, oiled or stained, for a unique look. Read on to

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Jun 22
3 min

Soft Shade Making Series: How to sew Lampshade Stitch or Streetly Stitch

Hand sewing is an essential part of making soft lampshades and in today’s post, we're sharing how to sew lampshade stitch or streetly stitch. The most commonly used stitch amongst traditional shade makers, lampshade stitch helps firstly secure the outer cover, and then the lining to the binding on the frame and it's the next stage in our Soft Shade Making Series, showing you how to make a soft lampshade from start to finish. What tools and materials do I need for hand sewing

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Jun 10
5 min

5 tips for Upcycling and Renovating a Second Hand Lampshade

Stumbling across a second-hand lampshade that has potential, whether vintage or relatively new, opens up a Pandora’s box of creative possibilities, but how do you prepare it for its new life? In today’s post, we share our tips, and those from our expert makers, on how to lay the foundations for taking an upcycled frame from someone's trash to fabulous lampshade treasure! 1. Stripping the frame Traditional style lampshades tend to be made of fabric and the majority are lined,

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Jun 2
4 min

Lampshade Hack #8 - Jubillee Ribbon Pinch Pleat Shade

We couldn't let the Platinum Jubilee slip by without celebrating the occasion, so we've taken inspiration from a vintage lampshade style - the pinch pleat shade - and added our own modern ribbon twist. Using royal blue striped ribbons, matching bias tape and a Conical Lampshade Making Kit this shade hack is packed with new, but easy to grasp skills and we think the result is definitely fit for a queen! What you’ll need to make your Ribbon Pinch Pleat Conical Shade 30cm Conica

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May 31
4 min

Meet the Maker - Rosella and Lime

Fashion graduate Sharon, of Rosella and Lime, takes inspiration from her sketches of nature to create stunning collections of lampshades, with gorgeous complimentary, and often bold, colour palettes. A fan of playing with proportion, her eye-catching elongated conical shades lend a mid-century modern twist to any room and in month's Meet the Maker, we go behind the scenes of Sharon's business and studio, to find out more. Hi there! How are you today and what’s on your workben

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May 24
3 min

Lampshade Inspiration - Neon Lampshade Making PVC

Get out your sunglasses - we're going bright, REALLY bright! Today we're taking a look at our Fluorescent Neon Lampshade Making PVC Range. It won't fail to bring a dazzling and eye-catching quality to your shade and with four dayglo colours to choose from, there are plenty of possibilities for using this fun material. Read on to get the low down on our Neon Range, how to make a shade with it and some inspirational examples of how it can make your lampshades pop! Neon Need to

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May 19
4 min

#memadeshade April Winner

April's #memadeshade competition has a real buzz about it (pun intended!), as this month's winning shade is made by the talented Liz of @loveyourhome.uk from a pretty Angel Strawbridge honeycomb fabric, featuring bees. And Liz's talents don't stop at lampshade making! Running a small interiors business from home, she can turn her hand to many interior crafts and we're sure her prize of a £100 voucher to spend at Dannells.com will come in very handy for her future projects. Co

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May 17
5 min

Soft Shade Making Series: Making a soft shade cover from a pattern

Making a well-fitting outer cover for your soft shade is critical to achieving an eye-catching and considered lampshade and today, we pick up from our previous post in our Soft Shade Making Series - How to Make a Pattern. In this post we show you how to transfer your lampshade pattern to your chosen fabric, tips on sewing it together and how to fit it to your pre-bound soft lampshade making frame, all with step by step photo tutorials. https://www.dannellsblog.com/soft-shade-

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