Jewelry Lampshade

I love love love earrings. Unlike a pair of jeans you haven't worn in a year or two, you always know they are going to fit!

I've seen a number of earring display/storage solutions online, but none of them were big enough handle my collection. Then a while back I saw this tutorial in ReadyMade magazine (was on the magazine website for a while but now I can't find it, so thanks to cactuscreekdaily.com for the image). Rather than covering the lampshade in keys I covered it in oodles of earrings!

The final result:

And yes, I like BIG earrings but there's some small ones on there too...

Oh the sparkles, the stones, the beads... sorry I'm easily distracted by shiny objects, back to the tutorial.

Supplies:

-A reclaimed lampshade from the thrift store. Back in the 90s when I worked in a fabric store you could buy the base of a lampshade, but I haven't seen those in a while. I highly recommend that you buy one that is equally cylindrical from top to bottom, otherwise your earrings will be resting on and rubbing against the metal hardware cloth.

-Hardware cloth (near the fencing and chicken wire in your local hardware store)

-Wire (I used some wire from my beading supplies, since it was easy to bend. Fishing line might also work) This item may be optional, see Step Two)

-Wire cutters (i.e. NOT YOUR FABRIC SCISSORS!)

-A lamp base. Mine is also from the thrift store, I actually have never plugged it in to see if it works, but you can use an existing lamp from your home if you want it to serve double duty. Remember spray paint can work miracles for lamps from most any decade.

Step One: If using a reclaimed lampshade, remove all coverings and decorations leaving only the base. You could certainly apply spray paint at this point, but I left it as was.

Step Two: You will be rolling the cloth around the shade and cutting it down to size as needed. There are two methods to affix the hardware cloth, and I used both with success. The first is to cut the hardware cloth to the exact height of the shade and "sew" it on with wire as in the picture below. I used a clip to hold it in place while sewing.

The other method is to cut the cloth bigger than the height of the shade and simply fold it over. You still may way to "sew" the seam once the cloth is wrapped completely around (leave a bit of overlap for this).

Step Three: Admire your work! Then place on a lamp and hang your pretties on it. In addition to earrings you can clip hair items to the top, or use S hooks to hang rings, bracelets, or necklaces.

Back in Black (and White)

Hello again!

My lack of posting is not necessarily reflective of a lack of sewing, so let's play catch-up!

Here's a baby quilt for a high school friend's first child. I was in her wedding a bazillion years ago so it's about time that she and her husband gave her mom grandchildren! The first was a little boy, so I used the (FREE!) pattern from Robert Kaufman Fabrics called Hanging Garden (I downsized it to 6 blocks by 7 blocks to be baby sized). I thought it had a bit of a mid-century modern vibe so instead of lining up the rows I staggered them a bit so that the flowing lines would be slightly wonky.

As usual with baby quilts, I opted for black and white with an accent color.

Here's the final result:


A glimpse of the pieced back:


Here's the texture pre-wash/dry:


I love love love the final texture after drying. I used Warm & Natural batting.