Blogging from the Craft Show

I'm at a craft show today, hoping to thin out my stock of cat beds and other creations! Thought I would use the time to share something I was working on last week. A while back I picked up this antique lamp base at a yard sale to refinish for my mom. She has a spinning wheel and spins her own fiber into yarn, plus she has a dedicated craft room that it will look great in. 

It needs to be rewired, and I still need to work on that. It also didn't have a lampshade, so I picked up an inexpensive one with an interesting shaped frame and discarded the old stained fabric. 

I started collecting vintage lace and handkerchiefs at estate sales to make into a shade. I traced the lampshade frame onto a piece of fabric to use as a pattern, and then arranged the lace and hankies overlapping each other. 

I hand stitched all of the edges of lace together to make one solid piece of layered fabric to cover the frame. Then I used hot glue to secure to the frame. I think it looks great! I might add a bit of ribbon on the top and bottom edges to make it look more finished. I can't wait to see how it looks with the light shining through the lace. I'll make sure to post a picture when it's all rewired. It's going to be a Christmas gift, so shhhhh! Mom doesn't know I blog. 

One other thing I'll show today is the cheesecloth ghost I finally made. I've been wanting to try this for years! I can't say it came out quite as good as Martha Stewart's, or looks quite as recognizable as a ghost, but I still like it. 

The process is to saturate cheesecloth in liquid starch and lay over a form that will create the ghost's body. My form was made of a tall mug with a ball of tin foil perched on top, and thin dowels sticking out the side for arms. I couldn't find liquid starch anywhere, so I made my own with just cornstarch and boiling water. It worked great. I wasn't sure if I should ring out the cheesecloth or leave it totally saturated. I left it saturated, so it took about 24 hours to fully dry.