Friday, September 9, 2011

Lamp Cord Cover

 Do you hate how cords are always so ugly? Do you hate the way your table scape looks with an ugly lamp cord ruining it?....I can totally make this into an infomercial :)

Well, yes. I hate the way cords look and how I always have to have my lamps sitting at the edge of the table so I can tuck the cord away. 
I attempted to make a cord cover in the past, it was a total utter failure. Like big time. I spent about an hour sewing together a three or so inch piece of fabric inside out. Then spent another two hours, if not more, trying to turn that fabric outside in. So, after all the work and frustration, I go to put it on the lamp (it was for a ceiling lamp, so this cord was like 5 yards long) and, lo and behold. Totally didn't work. See, if you can't sew a straight line and keep it exact, then the prong piece of the cord will not get through. After another or so hour of trying to feed the cord through the fabric, and cutting half the fabric up in order for it to fit. I was finally done. It was a complete joke. I could make like three pieces of furniture in the time it spent to make this dang cord cover....or cook a couple batches of cookies for that matter, cuz goodness knows that would have been a MUCH better use of my time. lol :)
 Well. Time went by, frustrations ceased...and then I realized a much MUCH easier way to do it.

 So, this is the nice...ugly...cord peering its ugly head out of my lamp :) I did cover this by the way when I spraypainted, you just can't tell cuz apparently I didn't really care how much it was covered. lol.
So, to get from point A (ugly) to point B (cute), get a scrap piece of fabric about three inches wide, fold down each end and hot glue the fabric over on itself. This doesn't have to be a continuous piece of fabric. I took like 5 or so pieces of fabric and did this same thing, the widths weren't even the same, but I didn't care. And you can't tell when its done :)
 So, the trick of doing this...is easy :) Just fold the fabric in on itself again on both sides (long ways this time), with the cord being in the middle, and hot glue the middle, pinch the fabric together until its cooled down, and keep on going! (and don't mind that I do stuff like this on our carpet ;) cuz I don't care. lol)
I didn't want a separation in the fabric since I used more than one piece, so I just bunched up the first piece of fabric and glued the end of it to the cord. Made sure it was secured, and then glued the beginning part of the next piece onto the cord right below it and kept going. This worked for me, but I'm not liable for any fire hazards that may occur if you do this same thing. lol. You know...just in case :) I think its fine, but I'm not an electrician.
 And there you have it! No more ugly cords :) I used this opportunity to use some fabric I bought awhile ago to put in this room, but then when I put it in here, it looked a little off. The color wasn't quite right and the pattern just didn't mix. But this little bit of it is juuuuust right (think of Goldilocks. haha).
And the best thing??? It only took about 5 minutes to do! Not the 5 plus hours like the other one :)
 I just bunched it at the top where it was really visible, I didn't care how bunched it was at the bottom...plus I was running out of scrap pieces of fabric. :)

Here's the life of this lamp since I got it in my hands. lol. This is its third change in a matter of a year an a half. Yes, I know....pathetic. but hey! at least I use what I've got :) Its called frugality...not insanity. lol

Alicia