I was pretty excited to receive some fabric from ModeS4u.com to review.
They are a Hong Kong based company that specializes in selling Japanese arts and crafts, bento boxes, stationary, and of course what I was most excited about--fabric!
Just because I thought it was cool, you can see inside their warehouse on their about us page, they have a lot of fabric!

I've never actually used Japanese fabric, but have read a bunch of other bloggers rave about the quality and so I was pretty excited to try it out.

This lamp is right between the crib and twin bed, so most nights RJ likes to stay up a few minutes to read books, but the lamp was too bright, keeping Ellie awake.  So I thought I could cover the shade to dim the light a little (in addition to the lower wattage bulb) and make it cute.

I chose a cute woodland print from their Japanese Kokka line, Beige Kokka Oxford Fabric with Toadstools.
The Oxford fabric is a light canvas, (100% cotton) which I thought would be durable enough for the lamp shade, but still allow some light through.

It's really easy to recover a lamp shade.
Drawing on the wrong side of the fabric, I start on the seam of the shade and trace the top and bottom curves as I roll it across.
You can add a little at each end to allow it to overlap.
I cut out the shade with a rotary cutter, and chose to leave the edges along the top and bottom raw.
Because it's a lamp it shouldn't see and wear or tear to fray.
To attach the fabric, I chose to use double stick tape to make a smooth contact.
(I've used hot glue in the past which bubbled and was too thick under the fabric)


I normally wouldn't think of canvas for clothing, but once I got this Oxford cotton, I thought how awesome it would be for kids clothes.
It has the durability of the stronger canvas weave, but is still pretty soft and not stiff.
I'm hoping to squeeze out a pair of shorts from the scraps I have left of this toadstool print!

I was also really impressed with all their unique laminated fabrics and have another project to share soon!