Shed a Little Light

If you've been following, you've seen that I've been slowly reworking Rowan's room.  No more Winnie the Pooh.  Hello tractors!  Here's a few pics of what I've done so far:

So as you can see, I've got a tractor/country thing going with the chambray and the check.  Very little boyish, if you ask me!

The next thing his room needed was a lamp.  All I had was the overhead light.  The problem was that I had to place to put a lamp.  Heaven knows I couldn't put it on his changing table, and we're not quite potty trained enough yet to do away with changing table.  

Well now, what about that blank wall by the door?  Hmmm...how about something for some toy storage/organization?  So while my husband was out of town, look what appeared!

It's a handy little set of cubbies!  I'm thinking about painting it red?  Thoughts?  

So now that I have something to put a lamp on, what next?  There just so happened to be a lamp that was not in use, so I snagged it!  (You can see it above without the lampshade.)

Nothing special.  I think perhaps it came Wal-Mart.  But what a boring shade!  Wait!  There's extra fabric from the curtain and pillowcase project!  I could totally cover the shade.  Should be a piece of cake.

Let me just say that that's a super tricky shape to work with.  Luckily, I had a bunch of big, blank paper work with.  It only took me two tries to get a decent pattern to work with.

I ended up laying the shade down, holding a pencil on the end and rolling it as I traced the shape.   Then I divided it into 2 pieces and added my seam allowances.  I used those pieces to cut out the red check for the tap piece and the chambray for the bottom.  Next, I sewed the pieces together and hemmed the top and side edges.  I wanted to make sure that the bottom was nice and even, so wrapped the fabric around the shade and clothes pinned it at the top.  Then I pinned up the bottom making sure I was even.  After the pinning, one more hem to be sewn, then off to glueing!  

A few squirts of fabric glue and a ton of clothes pins later, I had this:

At which point I realized I forgot to sew the ric-rac down.  *head smacks on desk*  So i cheated and glued the ric-rac down too :)  Maybe it's not technically cheating, but it sure felt like.  I'm curious to see if it will fall off sometime down the road...

A few hours later the glue seemed mostly dry and I had this:

I think it looks super cute and really ties the room together.  However, I can't lie.  The picture looks better than the finished product.  In reality, it's a little bubbly.  Somehow the fabric just wouldn't lay on there exactly right.  Just don't look too close at it.

And yes, that's a piece of Tupperware filled with money.  Rowan broke his piggy bank awhile back and we haven't replaced it yet.  A plastic box seemed like a safe alternative for now.  

Does Rowan like the lamp?  Honestly, I don't think he's even noticed it.  But gosh darn it, it makes me happy!