Grandma Project: Lamp Shade

This will not be "pretty" but why lie to you all and make you think everything I do is all shiny and happy? It's still functional and that's pretty much all Grandma seems to care about :) Which takes the pressure off of me, thats for sure. 

Grandma's lamp shade had crumbled to bits, literally. 

And it was pretty much blinding anyone who sat nearby. 

I couldn't find a way to buy JUST the plastic shade at any nearby stores. 

So someone suggested I make one. Having never made one before, the result was something functional but kinda...janky...

I found a dish that was a similar shape of the original shade and used it for a support.

I then worked on cutting a piece of cloth the size that I wanted for the main section. I didn't care too much about the circle not being perfect because it was going to get covered anyway.

Realizing I needed more height on it, I put the whole set up on top of a vase and then a plate beneath that because the starch will drip, I imagine. 

Dipped the fabric in REALLY thick starch...probably too thick, don't think it should have chunks like that...I've never mixed starch before so how should I know. 

Drape, form and let dry

Next I took this pretty granny square (I wanted to incorporate my Grandma's talent for crochet)

I removed the flower

Dunked and draped. Had to use safety pins to get it to stay, it was pretty saturated.

I think it took at least a day and a half to dry. I also added some glue but that was a mistake, I never should have added it. It didn't make a difference and it just added a nasty whiteness to the shade. 

Then the REALLY fun part, as in not at all fun. When I went to reattach the shade, the plastic beneath began to crumble at the slightest touch. I couldn't actually screw the thing back in! So I had to bust out the duct tape. If I had forseen the issue maybe I could have gotten a color less...purple...but at least it looks good with red. 

This angle makes Grandma look like she has a lamp on her head :P which I actually didn't realize until I loaded it. Yay for tunnel vision! She likes it, it does the job. And honestly she was far more amazed that they have purple duct tape now. TA DA!