Story of a Shade – Pretty Perfect Pair

The inspiration from this commission came from a lampshade in the boudoir at Scampston Hall near Malton. I happened upon this cute little shade when invited to visit the hall to see a crewelwork bedspread in the blue bay bedroom. For those of you who are interested in embroidery this master piece is a must see. For more details I have written a blog about the bedspread on Jacqueline’s Heritage Embroidery.

The brief called for a pair of small gathered and pleated lampshades for a lady’s bedroom, to sit on the fireplace surround in a Georgian property. Well, if a gathered cream lampshade sat pride of place in the boudoir at Scampston hall, the concept would definitely work in a lady’s bedroom of a Georgian property.

I have made oodles of gathered and pleated lampshades in all shapes and sizes over the years. Some with quite elaborate handmade trimmings. I have always had a soft spot for oval shapes. They give the impression of a larger shade with being able to sit comfortably on a narrow bookcase, window sill or fireplace surround. Which was the destination for this commission.

I already had a pair of oval frames in my stash which had been found at the back of a charity shop some time previously in Northallerton when my daughter and I had been looking for toddler clothing. So, I stripped them of their scaggy discoloured ribbons and wrapped the top and bottom rings.

I chose a very light weight cream dupion silk for the face fabric and an even lighter weight habotai silk for the lining. As the frames were small the pinch pleats were set at about 4mm. I was able to achieve pleats this tiny as the silk was exceptionally light weight. The beauty of bespoke handmade lampshades is that you are able to have control over every detail. If you look closely at the images on one of the lampshades the pleats are to the left and on the other the pleats are to the right. When sat on either side of the fireplace this will give total balance to the pair.

To compliment the tiny pleats, I pulled in the gathers to the bottom ring even smaller. Then once I was happy with the position of bother the pleats and gathers, I secured everything with lampshade stitch. To ensure the pleats remained crisp I caught the edge of each with the holding stitch.

The top ring was ever so slightly smaller than the bottom ring. This allowed for the tiniest of pleats on the top of the lining. The pleats in the lining of each lampshade were positioned in the same direction as the face fabric. Just the smallest of details lifting the quality of a bespoke handmade lampshade.

Now for the trimming. I chose to use the face fabric for the gimbal tidies. Then to the top ring I added a classic handmade bias strip made from the face fabric. The bottom ring was more complicated.

First, I hand stitched a premade ruffle. The ruffle was made from the same fabric as the main body of the lampshade. Then I handstitched the drop down pearl beaded trim. Lastly a beautiful gimp braid by Troynorth. Those of you who have been to one of my workshops will know that Troynorth, is one of my all-time favourite trimming suppliers. The hues in this gimp not only lifted the light reflected in the creams in the silk but also complimented the other colours in the forever room these little lampshades were destined to be.

Jacqueline runs 2-day, bespoke handmade lampshade workshops at scheduled times throughout the year. You can also join a 1-2-1, 2 or 3 day master class by special arrangment. Do come and join us!