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Contemporary yarn crafts by Heidi Gustad. Knitting, crochet, latch hook and macrame.

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How-to: Woven Ribbon Lampshade

May 6, 2013 3 Comments

How-to: Woven Ribbon Lampshade at HandsOccupied.com

Sometimes, you’re out walking the dogs and find a couple of perfectly good lampshades in the trash, and you have no choice but to take their existence as a sign you need some new lampshades. Even if you aren’t lucky enough to find craftable trash lying around, this project can be done with any wire-framed lampshade in need of a makeover.

Supplies

lots of ribbon, in 2 contrasting colors
an old lampshade with a wire frame
scissors
liquid stitch/fabric glue
lots of straight pins

Directions

Using whatever means necessary, strip your lampshade down to its wire frame.

How-to: Woven Ribbon Lampshade at HandsOccupied.com

Since I literally found my lampshade in an alley, and since even non-alley lampshades get dusty over time, I advise you to take this opportunity to throw away the probably-gross fabric removed from the shade and clean off your workspace.

How-to: Woven Ribbon Lampshade at HandsOccupied.com

Cut a piece of ribbon long enough to wrap tightly around your lampshade plus two inches. Pin one end around a vertical support of your lampshade skeleton as shown below.

How-to: Woven Ribbon Lampshade at HandsOccupied.com

Wrap the ribbon around the outside of the shade. When you get around to where you began, fold down the second raw end and pin it to the first, folded over end of the piece of ribbon.

lampshade6

Cover your lampshade frame from top to bottom in this manner. The next step is weaving in vertical pieces of ribbon. You don’t have to do this in a contrasting color, but I found it made the weaving effect really pop.

(I made two lampshades, using the purple ribbon for the horizontal loops for the first, and then using some cute bumble bee ribbon for the horizontal loops on the second. The pictures above feature the first lampshade, and the pictures below feature the second one. FYI.)

To weave in the vertical ribbon pieces, cut several pieces of ribbon that are two inches longer than your shade skeleton is tall. Fold one end of the ribbon over the top of the shade frame and secure to the top horizontal loop of ribbon with a pin. Repeat this process all the way around the shade, leaving the bottom end of the ribbon free and alternating how you weave the vertical ribbon among the horizontal. See the checkerboard effect of the purple ribbon on the bee ribbon?

How-to: Woven Ribbon Lampshade at HandsOccupied.com

Next, it’s time to glue everything in place as well as to glue over the ribbons’ raw ends to prevent raveling. Begin with the top of the vertical ribbons. Leave the pins in place until the glue is totally dry.

How-to: Woven Ribbon Lampshade at HandsOccupied.com

For the bottom of the shade, fold each end around the bottom metal piece similarly to the top, pin it in place, and glue to finish. Remove the pins when the glue has dried.

How-to: Woven Ribbon Lampshade at HandsOccupied.com

When the vertical ribbons are all set, you’ll need to glue the horizontal ribbon pieces too. Put a little glue inside each folded end and over the raw edge of the ribbon to keep it from raveling. Again, wait until the glue is totally dry to remove the straight pins.

How-to: Woven Ribbon Lampshade at HandsOccupied.com

An optional last step, if you’re so inclined, is to cover the exposed metal skeleton of the shade with more ribbon. For once, I decided to go with the shabby chic look on mine and left it raw.

I first posted this project at The Good Weekly, the blog for Goodsmiths. In case you didn’t know, I write twice a month for The Good Weekly. The bee ribbon used was provided by May Arts Ribbon. 

Filed Under: Home Decor, How-to, My Work Elsewhere Tagged With: home decor, lampshade, ribbon, upcycle, woven

About Heidi

Heidi Gustad is a craft book author & content creator in love with primary colors & vintage vibes. She specializes in knitting, crochet, latch hook and macramé, and her first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is out now!

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Comments

  1. Carol

    May 11, 2013 at 5:05 pm

    Fun shade.

    Reply
  2. Mia Ethan

    August 7, 2015 at 2:13 am

    Simple and powerful decoration. What ribbon did you use? I have bookmarked your snap. Thank you

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Weekly Reader, May 10, 2013 – Hands Occupied says:
    May 10, 2013 at 11:06 am

    […] On Monday, I showed you guys how to revamp a lampshade with woven ribbon. […]

    Reply

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Heidi Gustad from Hands Occupied / Craft Book Author and Knitting, Crochet, Latch Hook and Macrame Designer

Hi! I’m Heidi, an author, yarn craft designer and content creator specializing in knitting, crochet, latch hook & macrame. My work unapologetically features primary colors and vintage-meets-modern style. My first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is now available!

Professionally I’m most known for: advanced intarsia knitting design & modern latch hook design.

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knitting, crochet, latch hook & macramé

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A new YouTube tutorial is live today covering how A new YouTube tutorial is live today covering how to knit the Little Butterfly Stitch (aka Bowknot Stitch). It adds so much cute character to simple stockinette. Only a little funky to knit, and it packs a huge visual punch! 🦋 
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Find the video & written stitch pattern on the blog and YouTube, links are in bio. 
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#kpambassadorsfeb21 #sponsored
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Yarn: @kelbournewoolens Germantown in Baby Blue via @knit_picks. Needles: Prism Interchangeables, also from Knit Picks. 
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Pictured: a light blue swatch of Little Butterfly Stitch knitting on a pink background. A skein of yarn and a few stitches of knitting are nearby.
“You’re telling me words can be pronounced in “You’re telling me words can be pronounced in different ways and mean the same things?!” 👀 Posting this here, just to make it clear: when anyone says skayne, skeen, or skyne, it can be safely assumed we’re talking about a bundle o’ yarn,  a SKEIN. It’s not necessary to shame someone for using a word that is known to have MULTIPLE common pronunciations. 🧶
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Can you plz comment sharing how you say SKEIN and where you learned it? The OED happens to say SKAYNE, but it’s not a personal attack if someone says SKEEN and you say SKYNE or even Saskatoon. I’m legitimately curious. We don’t all knit or crochet the same way, and craft evolves a bit like language - it is passed on. There is so much value in having conversations about & embracing these variations! ✌🏻
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Pictured: A blond woman holds a skein of mustard yellow yarn up to her head like a phone, looking shocked. She’s wearing glasses & a knit sweater. 
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#handsoccupied #heidigustad #skein #yarn #yarncraft #knit #crochet #yarnaddict #knitincolor #soldotnacrop #language #englishisweird #oed #oxfordenglishdictionary
Sometimes my weekend projects involve hair rather Sometimes my weekend projects involve hair rather than yarn. Here’s the latest mediocre-but-improving result of my slow quest to learn to set vintage inspired curls. 💇🏼‍♀️ I’m hoping to be able to wash my hair less using a regular vintage set, but we’ll see if it ends up being practical. 😆 Hair frustrates me so much more than crafts! 
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Do you also style your hair using vintage methods? If you have any tips for vintage hair styling or good resources to share, please do!
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Pictured: A medium sized, brown, senior dog asleep on a green bed. For some reason a donut ball of navy wool yarn sits on his head.
The first stitch tutorial of the new year is live The first stitch tutorial of the new year is live on YouTube! Diamond Brocade is a great knit+purl only stitch for beginners or anyone wanting a classic look for their knitting project. Find the video with a written stitch pattern on the blog or head directly to the video on YouTube. Both are linked in bio. ✌🏻 
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