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Instructions for Making Lots of Simple Fabric Postcards
Make A Pieced Heart Greeting Card So Memorable that Your Family and Friends will be Talking about it (and your creativity) For Years
Fabric Postcards are the latest craze in quilting. So fun and easy to do, the whole family can join in and enjoy the satisifaction of creating something unique. They make great holiday greetings. With Father's Day quickly approaching, now is the perfect time to learn how to make your first fabric postcard.
Make A Pieced Heart Greeting Fabric Postcard So Memorable that Your Family and Friends will be Talking about it (and your creativity) For Years.
Each fabric postcard should be around 4” by 6” – don’t get too carried away with accuracy. Quilters have provided us with a variety of sizes. Each postcard will be 3 layers – 1 piece of flannel between 2 pieces of cotton.
Using a rotary cutter is the quickest and easiest way to cut the fabric. With a sharp rotary cutter, appropriate mat and ruler, you should be able to cut through 4 layers of fabric.
The first step is to line up fold the length of fabric in half, matching the selvedge edges. (Those are the sides that are tightly woven.)
After you smooth the fabric out, then fold it again – matching the fold with the selvedge edges. You will end up with a long piece of fabric 4 layers thick and about 10” wide, and it will look something like the picture on the left.
The selvedge edge is at the top of the picture. The raw edges are on the side – with all of the dangling threads.
Next you will cut the raw edges off.
Lay the ruler down on the fabric so that the raw edges are exposed and ready to be cut off. Check to be sure that the raw edges of the inner layers of fabric will be cut off. (Sometimes they are shorter than the outside layers.)
Once the raw edges have been cut off, you are ready to cut strips. Because this fabric is about 40” wide, you can easily cut 6” strips, and then cut 4” pieces off of the strips to make your 4” by 6” pieces.
The yellow guidelines on the rotary cutting mat are helpful for measuring. Line up the fabric between two horizontal gridlines. Make sure that the cut end of the fabric is lined up with a perpendicular gridline. Then find a yellow line that is 6” from the end of the fabric.
Line up the ruler, and then cut the fabric, using the ruler as a guide for the rotary cutter.
Cut as many strips as you need for the fabric postcards you will be making. Figure you will get 10 fabric postcards for each strip.
Once you have the 6” strips, open them up so they are 2 layers thick. (This is to make the most of the fabric.) Again, you can easily cut through 4 layers of fabric, so you can layer your strips to cut through 4 layers.
Now cut 4” pieces off of the strips. Use either the yellow gridlines on the mat or your ruler to measure these pieces. You may end up with a piece at the end that can be unfolded and used for a fabric postcard. If not, just toss it!
Repeat this for the flannel.
You should cut 2 pieces of cotton and 1 piece of flannel for each postcard. Stack them up, matching the corners and edges.
Once they are in a nice stack, sew around the outside edge approximately ¼” away from the edge. Begin stitching on one side, somewhat away from the corner.
Sew down the side until you are about ¼” away from the end of the fabric.
Then lift the presser foot on your machine and turn the fabric stack 90º.
Stitch down the next side.
Repeat until you have sewn all the way around. When you get back to where you started, just stitch over your beginning stitches by about 1” – this will secure the stitches without backstitching.
And that’s it!
Take it out of the machine, clip the extra threads, and they are ready to decorate.
The kids can use markers or crayons. If they use crayons, pressing them will make the crayon last longer. I’m not sure how successful it would be to press the 3 layers with crayons – it may bleed through to the other side, but it’s probably worth a try.
If you do press crayon drawings, use brown paper under the fabric and on top – to protect your ironing board and iron.
Enjoy! There are no limitations, except good taste. Cut as many strips as you need for the fabric postcards you will be making.
Once you have the 6” strips, open them up so they are 2 layers thick. (This is to make the most of the fabric.) Again, you can easily cut through 4 layers of fabric, so you can layer your strips to cut through .
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