Funky Flower Lampshade How To.....

Evening!
Ok tonight I'm going attempt to give you instructions on how to make the lampshade.

If you remember....way back when....

It all started with a selection of Scheepjes Maxi Sweet Treat balls of yarn, some cream fabric and a lampshade kit....oh and some quiet optimism!
I ended up choosing some key colours that I thought would work well with the wallpaper in my bedroom and set to making little flowers!

I ended with a lovely selection!

Before I go on with the instructions, I just wanted to talk about the lampshade.

I made mine. I wasn't too tricky....just a bit fiddly and it definitely needs two pairs of hands!

I bought this kit from Amazon. It was £8.99 and contains everything you need apart from the fabric...I used a scrap from my fabric box. They come in a variety of sizes so you can make a one that will fit your desired lamp base. The instructions were easy to follow....I'd only add one top tip! Before  you cut your fabric to the sticky paper size....allow a 1cm border on one of the short edges, then neatly fold this over onto the sticky paper. Add a length of the double sided tape to secure when you roll the and secure to the metal rings. This will leave you with a nice neat join....unlike my messy one!!!!

Alternatively.....head to a bargain shop and just buy a plain lampshade to pimp up to your hearts content!!!! 

Right! Onto the gritty business of making the flower frenzy lampshade

You Will Need....

Lampshade kit/Plain Lampshade

Scheepjes Maxi Sweet Treat yarn in your chosen colour selection

I used : 

786 Fuchsia

128 Tyrian Purple

750 Bordeau

189 Royal Orange

208 Yellow Gold

400 Petron Blue

390 Poppy Rose

245 Green Yellow

1.5mm crochet hook

Scissors

Darning Needle to weave in those pesky ends!

Blocking board and pins

Ric Rac to decorate 

Fabric Glue (choose the dries clear variety!)

First off you need a heap of flowers. Probably more than you think!

I decided to make a wavy design around my lampshade....you can play with designs

For the flower designs I searched Pinterest for inspiration and was stunned at the array of free patterns available. 

I chose 3 main designs for my flowers....

The first can be found on here on Pink Mambo. It's the beautiful Taanvi's Flower. 

I made a few of these, varying the colour combinations. 

Next came this stunning design... the Japanese Flower. There's a step by step tutorial here on Revlie Lots of bright colour combinations bring this to life!

This beauty provided a nice contrast to the more lacy designs.... nice and simple but very effective.

You can find the pattern here on Crochet 'n' Create

These 3 designs formed the basis of the flower wave but I also needed some cute little fill in flowers.

I made these very simply in a single colour by making a magic circle and then 10 double crochet into the circle, join with a slight stitch and close the circle. Next *chain 4, make 2 treble crochets into the next stitch, chain 4 and slip stitch into the next stitch. Repeat from * four more times to make 5 petals in total. Fasten off and weave in ends. 

I also made some smaller ones in exactly the same way but changing the chain 4 to chain 3 and trebles instead of double trebles. 

Once you have amassed enough flowers for your design give them a block.

This is important to ensure that they lie nice and flat when you're glueing them onto the lampshade. 
Now its time to stick everything down! I added my rows of Ric Rac first. You could also use decorative ribbon or braid. I simply measure the length I need and glued it down.  Once that was in place I could work out where my flowers were to go.  I stuck them down temporarily using some double sided tape until I was happy with the placement then I glued them down. 
TA DAAA!!! You have a funky lampshade to be proud of!

Til next time...I have a new project in the making!