If it's just dusty, try setting your hair dryer on "cool" and blow the shade clean. If it's got greasy dirt mixed in, you may need to sprinkle on some talcum powder first. Watch out, don't inhale the stuff that comes off!

As Newhomebuilder says, you could do it, but since it's fabric, it would probably look splotchy when you turn the light on. Especially since you want it to be black. Most black lampshades are opaque -- which means that they are made of paper, or cardboard. Have you looked online for a replacement shade?

Kittycat, it's not difficult to do this. It's a little harder to type up directions simply because you have choices to make. Fabric stores sell light shade kits where you peel off a backing and stick your fabric on the sticky side, trim with your scissors, then attach. They're very easy to use but they add to the price and limit your choice of shade shape. You don't need them if you're at all crafty, IMO. Your choice. To do it by yourself without a kit... SELECTING YOUR FABRIC: I avoid green or blue fabric for a lampshade. I don't want to look sickly sitting in a blue or green light! I recommend white, ivory, gold, brown, tan, red, rose, peach... whatever will throw a flattering healthy glow onto the skin of the person sitting nearby. Before buying the fabric, hold it up to the strongest light you can spot. How does it look? Does it need to be lined? Or is it fine with just the one layer? Do you like the way the light shines through it better if you hold it on the straight grain or on the bias? Bias gives you a little more stretch to the fabric, so it's easier to handle. Proceed based on what you learn. If you pick a stripe, plaid or check, you will need to be doubly careful to make sure it's always lined up properly. I'd avoid these fabrics. If you use lining, it should be white or off-white. Dark colors would absorb the light. You will need: pretty outer fabric, lining fabric (if you decide to line) and twill tape (see below). If you glue, you'll need a hot glue gun or Tacky Glue. You will need enough gimp braid to cover the top and bottom circles of each frame, and the ribs if you want or need to cover them. If you want fringe or beaded fringe on the bottom, you'll need that too. Measure around the bottoms of your shades and add a few inches for booboos or whatever. How much fabric do you need? Grab any fabric you have and wrap it around a shade. Add 3-4" in each direction. Multiply that by the number of shades you have. Measure it. All in all it's not much fabric; you may find something you love in the remnant bin. MAKING THE SHADES Shades are made by stretching the fabric across the frame VERY TIGHTLY. This is very important. Nobody wants to look at a baggy shade. The easy way: Hot glue or tacky glue the whole thing. Either way works fine, so it's your choice. The elegant way: Hand sew the whole thing. There is some consideration about a hot light bulb melting glue, but there's also a consideration about a hot light bulb catching fabric on fire. This is true with all lampshades. Lampshades and bulb wattage must be calculated accordingly. IOW, your existing frames for a chandelier should already be the right size for a chandelier bulb. When making a larger shade, stick to a 40-watt bulb and you'll be fine. Either way: 1. Remove the old shade covering. 2. Wrap the now naked shade frame in white or ivory twill tape that matches your lining. The gals at the fabric store should be able to direct you to the proper tape; it's thin and silky. Pull this tape VERY tightly as you wrap it. If you're going to sew your lampshade wrap the tape on rather thickly as you will want to put a needle through it. At the start of a piece, overlap the end of your tape. At the end, tack your tape down neatly. Wrap the ribs first. Wrap the top and bottom circles last. If you're going to hand sew the shade, then hand sew the ends down. If you're going to glue the shade, then glue the ends down. Do not use any glue if you're hand sewing the shade as it's murder to push your needle through a glued place. Now to cover the shade... THE EASY WAY: Glue the entire project and don't line the shade. Start with a hunk of fabric that is big enough to cover the shade AND give you plenty to grab on to to pull it tightly. Stretch your fabric around the shade TIGHTLY and glue it in place. Start and end on a rib. If you don't want to use decorative braid on the ribs, tuck your fabric under carefully at the end to form a nice looking "seam." If your shade is straight, you can just use one piece of fabric stretching around the entire thing. If your shade is curvy and your fabric is a stripe or check or something that must be applied strictly in one direction -- or if the light shining through it will shine at different angles on different places on your shade -- you can use a different hunk of fabric for each panel or each two or three panels, or for each half of the shade. Once your fabric is securely glued down, trim it with your scissors as close to the glue line as you can. Glue gimp braid on the outside of the shade to cover the glued edges. Do the ribs first (if you're doing them) and the top and bottom circles last. If you're using fringe, glue it around the bottom of the shade. If the edge of it is not pretty, cover it with gimp braid. You're done! Lining: If you want to line it, glue on your lining first and your outer fabric last. Glue the lining to the outside edges of the frame so that the lining will appear completely smooth on the inside. Actually, if you're lining it you could skip wrapping the ribs with tape and just glue directly to the wire frame. I've done that and it worked just fine. THE ELEGANT WAY: Hand sew the whole thing with needle and thread. Your stitches don't have to be perfect as they will all be covered up. Stitches should be small, not more than 1/4" apart. Every 4-5 stitches, do a locking stitch. I just use white thread. You will want your lining to be done all in one piece if at all possible (could depend on shape of shade). Pin your lining to the inside of the shade VERY tightly. Face all the pin tips toward the center so you won't get stabbed so much. Hand sew your lining to the twill tape. Make sure that no stitches show on the inside of the shade where your guests will be looking up into the shades -- IOW, you want your stitches on the outside edges of the shade. You can pin and stretch as you go. You get stabbed less that way. For the seam where the ends of your lining come together, you can either sew that seam on the sewing machine before attaching the lining (remember you want it tight), or turn it under when you get to that place and hand sew it down neatly. Make sure the seam ends up on a vertical rib of the lampshade frame, not in the center of a panel. Once your lining is all sewn in place, trim away the excess fabric just as close to your stitches as you can without cutting your stitches. Now do your outer fabric in the same way. Pull it very tightly as you go. Trim away the excess when you're done. You may want to use a thimble and keep pliers handy for if you're having trouble poking your needle through in some tough places. When your lining and your outer fabric are all sewn in place and trimmed, glue on your gimp braid. If you sewed your fabric to the ribs (you would for a larger shade), do gimp braid over the ribs first, doing the top and bottom circles last. You could sew the gimp braid on if you choose, but it's so easy to just glue it. OR if you don't want to use braid, you can fashion your own double-fold bias tape out of your fabric and hand stitch that on over the top and bottom ring to hide your stitches. Does this make sense to you? I hope someone will save these directions so if someone needs them in the future I don't have to think/type this out again. :-) Love, Oceanna

Thank you, blubird. Found my way out of the dilemma -- I'll return one, and buy three! Two new ones for the bedroom, one new and one old for my sitting room. Sitting room windows are exact same size as bedroom, but are on different walls, not adjacent to each other. Good enough chance of that working.