I’ve been working on layering some color and texture into my hallway. I have a sconce with a white shade and thought a gingham lampshade would be so cute! But they can be pricey to buy, so I decided to make one for myself! Turns out, it’s really simple to do! Here’s my tutorial for DIY no-sew fabric lampshade if you want to try this project out too!

DIY No-Sew Fabric Lampshade

SUPPLIES

step 1- create the strips of fabric

To begin, select fabric. It’s good to choose something in a smaller scale that’ll read well on the lampshade. Another tip is to use a fabric that has colors that pull from the room. There is pink floral wallpaper in the hall I’m working on. My plan is to paint the ceiling green and so I chose fabric from my stash that’s green gingham. This option is similar.

Using a lightweight cotton fabric will work nicely. Anything for quilting will be great.

You’ll need a 1/3 yard of fabric for a small lamp shade. If you’re doing a bigger lamp shade, measure the circumference of the shade and then triple the measurement. That’ll give you a good start for figuring out the yardage.

Now that you have your fabric, cut it into strips that are 2″ wide. I like to use a cutting mat, clear ruler, and rotary cutter for this. If you don’t have these tools, scissors will work fine (though it will take longer)! For my smaller shade, I ended up creating 12 strips that are 24″ long and 2″ wide.

Once you have the strips, cut the ends to a 45 degree angle.

Then put them into the bias tape maker on the wide end and as you pull the fabric out, both ends will be folded and you can iron the fabric flat.

What makes this project look professional are the crisply ironed pieces of fabric, so make sure to use the steam setting while ironing. After ironing, each strip will be 1″ wide.

Next, measure the height of your lampshade- mine is 5″ tall. Cut the ironed strips into shorter pieces that are a tiny bit shorter than the height of your lamp shade. I ended up using about 30 strips for my lamp shade.

Once those pieces are cut, you also need 2 pieces that are 1-2″ longer than the circumference of your shade. Save those for step 3. My shade is 15-3/4″ in circumference, I cut a 16″ piece and it was too short. I wish I’d gone 17″. So learn from my mistake! It’s always better for these pieces to go a little longer, they can always be trimmed if they’re too long.

step 2- glue the fabric to the shade

Now that the strips of fabric are created, it’s time to glue the fabric to the lamp shade. My shade had a seam on it, so I followed that to get it on straight. Then after that, I’ll just use the first piece as a guide to keep applying the next pieces on straight. Another option is to use a laser level and mark the shade lightly with a pencil at the top and bottom to get that first strip on perfectly straight.

Apply a little hot glue at the top and the bottom of the shade and then glue the fabric piece onto the lampshade. For this first strip, go really lightly on the glue- don’t have it go all the way to the pleated edge. That way, when you’re finishing with the last strip, it can be tucked under the first strip.

Once the first piece is on, continue across the shade, layering them on top of one another. Make sure to stagger each piece about halfway over on the strip of fabric. That means my pleats are about 1/2″ apart.

If you have a floral or geometric pattern on your fabric, you can play with the fabric strips to choose where the pattern lies. For my gingham fabric, I pulled from different areas of the pile of strips so the pattern was pretty random.

My shade is a drum, so it’s the same at the top and bottom. That makes this much easier to do. If yours gets wider at the bottom, it can be tricky to keep the fabric straight. Use a laser level as you go to help it be a little easier to keep the pleats straight.

Continue all the way around the lamp shade. For the last pleat, make sure to tuck half of it behind the first pleat for a clean finish. This way you won’t be able to tell where you started or ended. This gives it a very high end and polished look. Since the pleats are pre-cut it already looks really nice at this step!

step 3- apply trim to the top and bottom

And now, all that’s left is to finish off the top and bottom of the lampshade where there’s a raw edge on the fabric. For that, use your long fabric strips from step 1.

Glue one side of the fabric strip around the top edge of the lampshade. Then fold it over to the inside of the shade and glue the second half in place inside the lampshade. Repeat the process for the bottom edge of the shade.

And after that, your lampshade is finished! Put the shade back on the sconce to finish this DIY no-sew fabric lampshade.

after

Didn’t the lampshade turn out so cute?! I love the extra pattern and softness it adds to the space! And it’s much more Cottagecore- the vibe I’m going for!

Because the glue is applied at the top and bottom of the shade and then covered with more fabric, the glue does not show through when the light is on!

Since I added fabric to a white shade, it does make the light a little bit dimmer than it was before. I really don’t mind because we only use it at night when going from the living room to bed. So it’s fine that it’s not super bright. Mostly, I really don’t notice the difference.

I am so happy with how this turned out! I didn’t want to mess up a perfectly fine shade, but now I really love it so much more that it has personality!

time breakdown

It took me about 2 hours to create the DIY no-sew fabric lampshade. Honestly, this is a tedious project- there’s lots of cutting, ironing, and then carefully gluing. The glue step is the most important because if the pieces are put on crooked or the top and bottom pieces are sloppy, it’ll ruin the project. So go slow and take your time.

price breakdown

I had the fabric, shade, sconce, and most of the supplies on hand. The only thing I bought was the bias tape maker for $8. It saved me SO much time ironing, so for me, it was totally worth it! Now I own the tool so I can make more bias tape in the future!

This DIY No-Sew Fabric Lampshade completely transformed my hallway sconce and added so much charm and personality to the space. I love that this project is budget-friendly, customizable, and doesn’t require any sewing experience at all. While it does take a little patience with all the cutting and ironing, the finished result looks high-end and custom.

If you’ve been wanting to add more color, pattern, or Cottagecore charm to your home, this is such a fun weekend project to try!

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