A New Lamp Shade + A Craft Fail

I had the bright idea to recover a lampshade one day last week. I thought it would be a quick and easy update to a boring, cream lampshade in our den. I already had fabric on hand that I wanted to use to bring a little more color into the room. I gathered my supplies,


measured my fabric and ironed the fabric under on the ends,


began to hot glue the fabric to the lamp shade,


I was so careful...


And then I realized that gluing fabric to a tapered shade was not going to work out. No matter how much I tried to make it work. I knew the shade was tapered when I began, but I really thought I could cut and stretch the fabric to make it work. Nope.

Enter new lamp shade from Wal-Mart. It is a 14 inch drum shade that was $14.99.


Let's start this process again, shall we? I started by hot gluing one end of the fabric to the inside seam on the lamp shade. I applied a little spray adhesive to the wrong side of the fabric to help it stick to the shade while I rolled and glued the fabric to the inside of the shade.


What is this???? Why is is puckering? Oh, upon careful inspection, this shade is not a perfect drum shade. The top part of the shade is just slightly smaller than the bottom. Thanks Wal-Mart. I decided to make it work. I was ok with a few puckers.


The inside looks messy...


But the outside seam looks pretty good! This side will be turned so it faces the wall. I love all these colors together.


And here it is! A nice, little update to a boring lampshade.


One of my fall vignettes. I spray painted two shiny, silver lanterns I found at Lowe's on clearance in an oil rubbed bronze color and added some fake pumpkins and gourds from Michael's. The second lantern is larger, and I think I got them both for $6! Take that Pottery Barn!


You can really see the puckers in this shot, but they do not show up like that in person, I promise.


Have you had a craft fail recently? Please tell me you have!