Making your own pleated lampshade will save you money and give your space a unique layer of charm. This tutorial is an easy way to upgrade any boring lampshade, and in just a few hours, you can have a customized look that’s easy on the budget.
As I’ve been incorporating English-inspired design elements into our modern traditional cottage home, fabric pleated lampshades have been on my radar. They’re so textural, interesting, and often colorful. I just love them! But, these babies are expensive…like starting at $150 expensive. Now that I’ve DIYed these, I completely understand why, and it’s not just because they look cool.
While this is a relatively easy DIY, it is time consuming. But, I don’t have the budget to buy these pre-made, so I figured out how to make my own DIY no-sew pleated fabric lampshades for Hannah’s NYC Apartment Meets English Cottage bedroom refresh. It took a few hours, but saved me hundreds, so it was worth it in my book.
Click through to learn how to make your own pleated fabric lampshade.
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DIY No-Sew Pleated Fabric Lampshade
Materials Needed:
- 1.5 – 2 yards of fabric
- Hot glue gun
- Hot glue sticks (a lot)
- Lampshade
- Wide bias tape
- Scissors
Measure and Cut Fabric | You can measure your lampshade from top to bottom and then cut the fabric accordingly, or hold your fabric up against the shade to determine where you need to cut (like I did). After cutting the first length, use that piece as a pattern to cut out two to three more lengths. You’ll need 3-4 lengths total and a little leftover for the trim.
Attach Fabric to the Back of Lampshade | Run a line of hot glue down the back of your shade where you want your fabric to start and end. Then, attach your fabric to that hot glue and press down to make sure it’s secure.
Pleat and Glue Fabric to Top Rim of Shade | Once you’ve got that piece in place, you can start pleating the top of the shade. Put a dot of hot glue on the fabric where you want the pleat to lie, and then use your fingers to make a tiny fold in one direction and hold it down firmly for a second or two.
Repeat over and over and over until you reach the end of the length of fabric you are working with. You can choose to fold your pleats in either direction (right or left), and as long as you’re consistent, it’ll look good.
Just keep pleating and gluing and pleating and gluing. If you notice that your glue is not seeping through the fabric to adhere to the shade, just run a line of glue on the rim of the shade (underneath the pleats) and press all of your pleated fabric to it so it stays in place.
Pleat and Glue Fabric to Bottom Rim of Shade | Once all your pleats on the top are fully glued, start making your pleats on the bottom. As you are gluing down the pleats on the bottom rim, make sure to pull the fabric taut.
You don’t want your fabric to be loose like this.
As you are gluing down the pleats on the bottom of your shade, pull the fabric taut so the pleats form nicely and will stay in place.
After one length of fabric is fully pleated and glued down on the top and bottom, you’re ready to start the process all over with the next length of fabric.
*When adding additional lengths of fabric, you don’t have to run a line of glue down your lampshade and attach the end of the fabric. You can simply fold that end under, place a dot of hot glue at the top, middle and bottom of the edge of the fabric, and blend it in with the other pleats.
You won’t even be able to tell where one length of fabric ends and another length begins if you just tuck the end under and disguise it as a pleat.
Keep pleating and gluing all the way around the shade until you end up where you started, making sure you’re pulling all your pleats taut along the way and securing everything to the shade with hot glue.
Trim Excess | Use scissors to trim off excess fabric. You want a nice, clean edge to place your trim on.
Make Lampshade Trim | Measure the top and bottom rims of your lampshade and cut two pieces of bias tape the same lengths. Then, cut two long, skinny pieces of fabric the same lengths and lay them out on an ironing board. Place the pieces of bias tape on top of them.
Fold your fabric over the bias tape so there’s enough extra to tuck under for nice edges. Basically, you’ll want to mimic the bias tape with your fabric. Press it so it’s crisp.
This is how your trim should look when you’re finished…
Attach Lampshade Trim | After both pieces of trim are cut and pressed, use your hot glue gun to adhere it around the top and bottom of the lampshade, being careful to cover up the ends of the pleated fabric. I found that trying to straddle the rim with the bias tape trim didn’t give a crisp edge, so I just laid it flat and glued down any loose fibers so it looked nice. I also cleaned up any jagged edges of fabric that were sticking out after I applied the trim.
Once you glue down the ends of the trim on the back of the shade, you’re done!
Admire | Always stand back and admire your work. Or, if you’re like me, walk away and come back several hours later to ooh and ahh over your project. I struggle so much with imperfections that I find it helps if I just come back later to admire my work (just me?).
I was SO happy the night I finished these DIY no-sew pleated fabric lampshades because Jeff came into Hannah’s room and said, “Wow, those are remarkable! It looks like you bought them.” Sometimes it takes eyes that aren’t your own to see past the imperfections you know are there.
Whatever it takes, admire your work because you just saved yourself hundreds of dollars and made beautiful, custom, unique lampshades that nobody else will have.
When adding additional lengths of fabric, you don't have to run a line of glue down your lampshade and attach the end of the fabric. You can simply fold that end under and blend it in with the other pleats. DIY No-Sew Pleated Fabric Lampshade
Materials
Tools
Instructions
Notes
Happy DIYing!
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Where is that cute little fan from? Love the lamp shade!
I think it’s linked in the post. I just bought it on Amazon…it’s a Vornado.
Hi! Can I ask where you got this pretty fabric from? Thanks! I’d love to make the exact one.
Hi there, and thank you for stopping by the blog. It’s from Joanns actually and I believe they still sell it. Look in the quilting fabrics section.
Thanks so much! Can I also bother you to ask where the ceramic lamp is from?
Those were actually vintage from a garage sale I think.
Hi
I just did a lamp shade loosely based on your tutorial, thank you.
I posted a photo on my Instagram @canadian_coastal _interiors
Cheers
Lisa
Ooh, I can’t wait to check it out! I’m sure you did an amazing job.
this is so helpful- thank you!! i just finished my first one, which I knew would be experimental and realized i didn’t follow the instructions- i did the whole top then the whole bottom, which explains why things look a little wonky…. hahaha. but now i know! thanks again!
Hey, but you went for it, and that’s the best way to get better at anything!
Thank you for a very detailed tutorial. I have a thing for lamps and all lighting really. I have quite a few lamps that need shades but I can never find any that I like. I look forward to using this tutorial.
Regards,
Penny
Oh I’m so glad to hear that! Making pleated lampshades has become an obsession for me 😉
I love this tutorial! Do you think it’s the same process for a triangle-shaped lampshade? Or would you have to make more pleats at the top where the opening is smaller? Thank you!
Hi Melissa…thanks for the great question! It is a little trickier with a triangle-shaped shade, and I think I should add pictures of how to do that to this post. Yes, ultimately the top would be a bit more pleated than the bottom, but it’s still the same concept. I’ll see if I can do a tutorial on that and add pictures to this post for those who I know are curious about the same thing.
I have been looking for a tutorial for this pleated lampshade!! Thank you so much! Love your blog!
Thank you so much! I’d love to see yours when it’s finished!
It looks amazing!!! A couple months back I was looking for affordable pleated lampshades or a comprehensive DIY tutorial and it seemed like neither existed! Great job!
Oh awesome to hear! I’m glad I could fill that gap!
Thank you!!
I shelled out for one of these. I am definitely going to do this project.
To be honest, I’ve been tempted to shell out for one of these just because they’re so cute and well made! Now I have no reason to!
I am excited to give this a try. I used to have a DIY column several years ago, but it burned me out. This looks like such a doable project, it’ll for sure be one to try. And a way to use up extra fabric too (and fix an ugly shade) 🙂 For being a non-sewer it is still a bad habit to buy pretty fabrics. I’d love to see more ways to use them. Your blog is lovely!
DIY can definitely burn a person out! I’m planning to use these shades (much smaller version) in a few upcoming projects so I’ll share more ways to use them in those posts. And yes, buying pretty fabrics is a hard temptation to resist…I get it. Thank you for stopping by the blog!