DIY Burlap Lamp Shades

I posted here about wanting to find burlap lamp shades to go with our new room design. I checked out a few more places and didn't find anything that I loved, especially that would match the light colored burlap throw pillow that we already have on the bed. I decided to attempt to make my own! 

I went to Joann's Fabric and bought burlap fabric for $3.99 per yard, but got a 20% student discount with my college id :)

Then I went to Target and had to buy lamp bases and shades, I found cute bases that match our furniture colors for $20 each and I got the shades for $8 each, not amazing but I didn't want to spend hours driving around town searching for cheaper lamp shades, I figured that was good enough. This would have been a much cheaper project if I already had something I didn't like and could use that, but the only thing I had were those crappy silver lamps. 

The original set up, pre-burlap!

I also had to buy some spray adhesive, but luckily I had a 40% off coupon to Michael's! And this will probably last me for quite a while now. I found this tutorial and off I went.

I took the lamp shade and rolled it along the burlap, drawing curves where to cut.  FYI, this was not as easy as I expected and you have to be careful not to mark on the lamp shade!

Then I cut my burlap to fit. 

I sprayed the lamp shade with the spray adhesive (outside because it's got quite an odor) and then basically rolled the burlap around, smoothing it out as I went. If you have rubber gloves at home I would use them for this part, it's not a huge deal but I definitely got sticky from the spray!

No more white lamp shade!

I had to test it out even before getting the binding on

 To hid my rough edges at the top and bottom I added a binding. The tutorial told me to take a 1 inch cut of burlap, the length of my circumference of my lamp shade and ironed in a piece of stitch witch (basically a piece of fabric with "glue" on either side that sticks when it is heated), fold the flaps over and iron them down.Well talk about an epic fail. That did NOT go as planned. I don't know if it was because my burlap was a little bit stiff, it didn't fold as easily as when I used stitch witch on the curtains, or if I just suck at that type of thing.... Not only did it not stay down very nicely I did not get the binding even all the way around. Hot mess.

Attempt before hand... stitch witch placed in the middle

"done" HA. like I tell my kids after I draw on the board... I am NOT an artist

It's hard to tell in this picture but I also got some blue from the ironing board pad on the burlap!! FAIL!

So as I was finishing up this failure my wonderful hubby came home and attempted to help me solve the problem of how to create a binding/edging for the lamps. Basically we just needed a really straight cut edge, without any fraying so eventually he came up with the idea to use something to make the burlap hard, so that we could cut a straight line and the edges would stay in place (no fringe). So we decided to use the spray adhesive, so then it would be stuck together and pretty firm, and it worked!! We took the fabric outside, sprayed it down (only one side is necessary although it kind of comes through since its hole-y) and then after it somewhat dried brought it back inside and his steady hand cut perfect lines all the way across.

Since it was already sprayed with adhesive we were able to just put it on the lamp shade where we wanted and ta da it stuck!! Here is the lamp shade after the top edging is put on:

We repeated the process for the bottom layer and finally my project was complete!! WOOHOO!