From shirt to lamp shade

Hello there!  I'm finally sitting down again, giving you some glimpses of what I've been up to lately. Last week the kids were free from school, and we also had my sister and her three boys staying here for a few days, so there haven't been so much creating going on here. But last night I finished this lamp shade. Do you like it? I do. I don't know how well you know me, but I really, really love making things from old "junk". We visited my father-in-law the other day, and I found the remains of an old lamp, that is I found the metal skeleton of an old lamp. Had to have it, and he loves when we bring his old things home and it comes to use.

 I had some thinking about what to do with this lamp skeleton, but I didn't have to think long. I wanted to make a lamp for my boy's bedroom window. But how do you make a lamp like this cool enough for a ten-year old? Think, think, think... Then I remembered one of his old shirts that I found while sorting out outgrown clothes a little while ago. We gave most of it away, but I kept some for future crafting. And I loved this flannel shirt. So I got my scissors and got to it!

As I was still planning the lamp I had other treasures lying on my table that I brought home from my father-in-law. Or actually from my mother-in-law's old stuff. She died seven years ago and had been ill for as long as I knew her, but she used to be a really crafty lady. She sewed, knitted and crocheted, and tried all kinds of other creative things. Oh how much fun we could have had together! But as it is, I bring home the things she left behind and use it. I think she would have liked that. In this particular case, I had ribbons, and a wide, brown ribbon was just perfect for what I had in mind.

I simply cut the shirt to fit on the hight, and took it in a little in one side to fit around the metal. I attached the ribbon around top and bottom, but only on one side so I could use the machine. That way I got a more even and straighter seam than I could ever sew by hand. This was all done in a few minutes.

Then the more time consuming part begun. To fold the ribbon around the metal wire and sew it into place. The top was okay and not much trouble, but the bottom... Well, I kind of act without giving it too much thought when I create and there's a price to pay for that! This time, I had completely forgot about the feet on the shade. It doesn't show on the pictures, but in each corner the wire frame bend to make feet. So I couldn't just fold the ribbon over the frame! I hate redoing things so I found a way, only not the neatest. But no-one will ever see that, unless they turn the lamp upside-down. Hope nobody will! 

And by the way, I see some bloggers sometimes talk about the mess on their working space or any other table. I tell you - you have seen nothing! Consider me the queen of mess. I bring everything to the table when I'm trying out new ideas, and I truly don't put it back at once. This is actually almost as tidy as my table gets. Sometimes I get enough and tidy things up, but it never lasts long. So what? Really? It works for me. But it's hard to take a clean picture, I can tell you that! Hehe!

Aren't these booklets just lovely? Enlarge it if you can't see it properly. I found these too in my in-laws house. Old booklets filled with alphabets, names, tags, flowers and such to use for embroidery. Lovely! I think some of them belonged to my husband's grandmother, I found some small papers with her initials on.

Oh, and meet my new best friend, Evermat! At least I hope he is. This is a food dryer, the cylinders on top of the heater are six drying boxes on top of each other. This will save me so much time and space when I'm drying things! I got this on my birthday from my parents, grandmother, sister and brother. Thank you!

Oh, and this is me trying to take a picture of the lamp shade. Someone here is dying for attention right now, so I had to push her away to get the shot. Something, probably another cat, bit her on her jaw and the wound was infected so we had to take her to the vet. She has to stay inside for ten days, and oh my how she hates that! The wound seems to be healing well, although I keep smearing half her face when I try to give her the medicine... So I let the man in the house be in charge of that when he's at home. Well now, I seam to have a cranky girl to cheer up, see you soon again!