Bedside lamp makeover

I got these bedside lamps from Ikea two years ago, and though they never were beautiful, they were pretty neutral and they were very inexpensive. Now, however, they had become extremely ugly, one had  gone yellow from the smoke of mosquito coil, while the second had spots of unknown origin.

Plus, they didn't really illuminate very well.

I spent some time thinking about what to do with the lamps. I tried to cut the covers, so in order to cover them with fabric, but the cheap plastic just broke. I was about to give up when I came upon this structure, that had covered the pots of my fuchsias when I bought them, and that I had never thrown away. Luckily, I had two of those.

I gave them an ivory finishing with the remaining spray from my sewing case makeover so that they wouldn't be easy to see through the fabric, at least with the light out.

Not only were these cylindrical structures free, they happened to be a perfect fit for the lamp base.

I decided to use a light fabric that would give some more light, so that it would be possible to read with these bedside lamps. I cut a trapeze from the fabric according to the measurements of my cylinder.

I joined the two short sides with a straight seam adding some zigzag-stitching over the raw edges.

And finished the upper and lower edges into a double hem with the raw edges hidden inside the hem, leaving an opening where to put elastic in.

Coccolina was in charge of quality control, here you can see here checking the elastic

The finished cover looked like a little skirt with elastic in the top and bottom hem.

The finished lamps are a lot nicer to look at than before:

 

And they give some more light, too.

What a difference:

Have you made a project following this tutorial? Let me know what you think. Did you like it? Was it easy to understand and to follow? Do you have any suggestions?
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