The Cutest Little Desk Lamp On My Desk

I'm not saying that this lamp is the cutest ever... but it's the cutest one on my desk and that title is not being challenged at the moment.

I took a lamp and shade from Walmart and set about making the lampshade pretty.  I have learned since my last lampshade cover, that there is a right way to do this: trace the lampshade onto paper first.

You have to roll the lampshade along the paper and trace as you go.  It's all very complicated and I think I slipped a disc in my back while doing it, but I survived.  When you're done, cut out your tracing and you'll have something like this (that is, if you have this same shaped lamp shade):

Do you see the picture at the bottom there? That is actually a city councilwoman in a 'Super Grover' costume. I wish I was making that up.

Now, if you are super-talented, you just cut out the fabric using this as a template.  I did not do this exactly, and here's why: If I cut out the fabric using this, I would waste a lot of fabric for the cut.  It's a wonky shape and since my fabric was cut in straight lines when I bought it, I would have scraps after this project to work with. Scraps make me sad.  So here's what I did: I folded this pattern in half and cut my fabric.  That way, I would be able to use less fabric from the roll.

Did any of that make sense? Probably not.  Ah well, at least I'm still gorgeous.

See? I folded it in half and cut two of them.  This gave me seams in my lamp, but they don't bother me at all and I didn't waste any fabric.

I ironed the fabric and used heat bond tape to get a good folded edge for my seams.

And then I hot glued the fabric to the lampshade, tucking and gluing the edges as I went.

Once that was done, I had a covered lamp... too cute!

Oh, but I didn't stop there... I added some beads to the bottom. Oh, yes I did.  I love the beaded trim you can get at Hobby Lobby, it is cuter than a bucket of kittens sleeping on top of a bucket of puppies.  'Cause that is cute.

I told you, it's the cutest lamp on my desk... hands down.