Top Hat Lamp

My son's room is decorated with gentlemanly items like mustaches, top hats, "A Gentlemen's Guide" and so on.  Naturally I wanted a bedside lamp that matched, but I couldn't find a top hat lamp, or at least one that I loved for a reasonable price...so I made one.  Here's how:

(Finished product!)

Materials:

Hot glue gun

Sharp knife

Cutting board

Lamp base

Lamp shade that can fit inside your top hat

Spare piece of felt that matches the color of the top hat

Felt top hat (I got mine at a halloween costume store for about $5.  It's important to use a felt top hat, or a thicker top hat so that it won't melt from the heat of the lamp.  I originally wanted to do this with a cheepy top hat that I found at Hobby Lobby made for Christmas/snow man decorating, but it melted after only about a minute on the lamp shade.)

Place the top hat upside down on a cutting board, and place the lamp shade upside down inside the center of the top hat (or close anyway).  Being VERY careful, use the sharp knife to cut out a hole on the INSIDE of the lamp shade.

Take out the piece that you cut out so that you can see all the way through the top of the hat.

Next put hot glue around the top of the lamp shade.

Glue onto the top hat.  At first I thought that was the end of it, but I didn't like seeing the rough edges of the glue...

So thankfully I had a spare piece of felt--and I mean spare piece!

Cut out a strip long enough to fit around the inside of the hole, and thick enough to fold from the top down into the lamp shade.

After measuring it I cut slits to fit around the spokes of the lamp shade.

I glued all the way around the top side of the felt piece to give it a more even look and make sure it is more secure, but just tacked down the inside with little drops of glue.

    

And voila!  You now have a top hat gentleman's lamp!