Lace Doily Ball Lamp

I’ve been trying to find inspiration for home decor that is handmade and not too expensive. When I first saw these lace doily ball lamps, I knew I had to make one. They’d make the perfect accent for any room (except the man cave).

Materials:

• LED light strand
• Ribbon
• Doilies (I used 11 8-inch ones for mine)*
• Balloon
• Tacky Glue
• Aleene’s Fabric Stiffner
• Vaseline / petroleum jelly
• Plastic basin
• Rubber gloves (optional)

*Just a quick note about doilies: If you’re using ones that you have lying around at home, make sure yours have a thicker pattern on it. This will allow them to stick together better when you shape the lamp.

Steps:
First, set a trash bag or table cloth on your table to protect it. Then blow up your balloon. Take your Vaseline and spread a thin layer all over the surface of the balloon.
Place one doily in your plastic basin. Pour a generous amount of fabric stiffener onto the doily, and spread it around so that you saturate the entire thing.

Carefully spread the doily out on your balloon. I started at the base of the balloon, where it was tied, and worked my way down toward the top. Adhere the remaining doilies to the balloon, one by one. I started out by holding the balloon in one hand and sticking the doily with the other.

The fabric stiffener dries really fast, so make sure to do one doily at a time. Otherwise, they will all stick together in one impossible lump! I started out by using rubber gloves, but ended up taking them off so I could work the ends of the doily more easily. The fabric stiffener wasn’t very easy to peel off my hands though, so I’m just warning you!

The balloon got really sticky as I put more doilies on, so I tied a ribbon around the end and hung it from our chandelier so that I could use both hands to stick the rest of the doilies on.
Once the doilies were on, I used the Tacky Glue to seal all the ends together. Then I let the whole thing dry overnight. You will know your lamp is dry when it feels solid like a plaster mold.

I popped the balloon and pulled it out through the opening.
I didn’t like the shape of the opening, so I cut around the doily until it looked more like a ball. The cut edges were pretty sharp, so I used sandpaper to smooth them out.
The next step is to string the lights inside the lamp! We’re using LED lights, which means they won’t get too hot and set your lamp on fire. I started off with putting the battery pack on the bottom of the lamp, then wove the wire ends through the gaps in the lace.
The final step is to tie ribbon to the opening of the lamp so it can be hung up!
I love how this lamp sets the mood in the room! I bet it’d look great to make mini-lace ball lamps too and string them all together, too. There are a lot of possibilities with this one!

Esther