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Unicorns are here to stay! A trend that has pervaded everything from children's and adult fashions, to toys to homewares, unicorns are a symbol of a fantasy and magic.
For our third lampshade tutorial in our series from Marliese of Three Bear Prints, she's taken this fantastical and mythical beast as the signature design for a fun shade for a child's bedroom. By adding a gold brushed Stick it PVC inner, the lampshade emits a soft glow when lit bringing an ethereal and magical quality to the room - something we think every child will love!
Sharing her design tips for creating the fabric and for making up the shade, read on for Marliese's full tutorial.
What you need to make your gold interior shade
Stick-It ® Gold - Brushed - Self-Adhesive Lampshade PVC cut using our bespoke lampshade cutting service
1 x rolled edge tool
How to make a gold interior shade
Lampshade making for me is about starting with the design and I knew I wanted to use this image of a unicorn. Working with the size of shade provided as part of Dannells' Fabric Printing Service I established that the dimensions of the unicorn meant that it was best that it was repeated four times across the lampshade. To fill in the space behind the unicorn, I created a gold star pattern to unify the lampshade design.
It's important to bear in mind what the final size of the lampshade will be when creating your design, to ensure you do not cut through any important motifs. The final stage was to send this off to be printed up by Dannells'.
You can see the below that the lampshade fabric was printed up, with the colours and detail precisely rendered on the fabric.
1. Here you can see the glorious gold of the lampshade PVC, which will form the inside of your lampshade.
2. Lay the PVC on the back of the fabric and mark exactly where it should go with a pencil. Carefully peel off the backing bit by bit and smooth it into place.
3. Flip the fabric over every now and then to check that it is being applied smoothly. You can see that I was using different objects to weight down the PVC to keep it in place while I stuck it down.
4. Trim the excess fabric off once it is in place.
5. Crack the PVC down either side length ways. Peel the strip away down either length, to provide you with the ideal amount of fabric to wrap round the lampshade rings in the final stage.
6. The image below can how it looks once these lengths have been cracked and peeled off.
7. It's time to move onto the lampshade rings. Apply double sided sticky tape to both.
8. Starting in the middle of the PVC, stick each ring perpendicular to the edge.
9. I prefer to roll the fabric around the lampshade rings at this point, heading to one end first, then the other.
10. Take your time as you come to the seam, and decide which side should be the top edge of the seam.
11. Put double sided sticky tape down the seam edge, pressing it down firmly. Press it into place over the other edge of the lampshade PVC.
12. Finish the edges of the lampshade ring by using the tool provided to slot the fabric in behind the lampshade ring.
13. The finished lampshade ring looks great on a concrete and copper base - this reflects the gold inner!
About Three Bears Prints
Fabric designer, Marliese of Three Bears Prints lives in Perth Scotland, where nature becomes the inspiration for her fabric collection, but her creative ideas don't stop there.
As well as designing fabrics, she's a dedicated furniture up-cycler, lampshade maker and sewer, and has a second muse in her daughter, for whom she creates fun fabric designs, such as her train track and halloween fabrics. Her designs are available as fabric and wallpaper and can be bought from her website. See her tips and handout on lampshade making here.
Follow Marliese on Instagram @threebearsprints and on Facebook.
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