Last month, I made a birthday card for a friend that turned out so cute she said I should sell them :) Haha! The funny part of the story was that I made it in a last-minute panic because I had forgotten to buy a card. I needed something very last minute. I cut the front part off a card I'd received and wrote my note on the back like a postcard. Then, I stitched a flap of cute fabric across one edge to close it up like an envelope again.
That got me thinking. In the sewing/quilting world, we have an advantage with our unique skills and equipment. We sew fabric to fabric all the time, but have you ever thought of the cute things you can do if you sew fabric to paper?
It’s Mother’s Day and if you haven’t gotten the perfect card for Mom yet, why not make one?!
I took a scrap strip of ombre pink fabric about 2” wide and pressed a 2” strip of fusible web to the back. Then, I cut freehand wonky petals across the width. About 6-7 petals will make one flower.
Peel the paper side off the fusible and arrange the petals on the front of a blank card into a flower as shown (buy these in a craft store). I offset my flower so I could fit a curved stem on the front of the card.
Press the petals in place with your iron, it only takes about 10 seconds, and you won't scorch the paper in that time.
I stitched around each petal in a matching thread. This is only a design element, because those petals aren’t going anywhere! I used a basic universal 80/12 size needle and lowered my stitch length to just under 2.0.
I changed the thread to spring green and used a triple straight stitch to stitch in the stem and a leaf. I like using the triple straight stitch function when I want something to show because the machine goes back and forth in the same spot three times before moving on. It's much easier than trying to line up for a second and third pass with a regular straight stitch.
What if flowers aren’t your thing? How about some geometric shapes? I used the same process with some floral scraps and cut triangles. I arranged them in a more random modern design and pressed them in place.
I used the triple straight stitch to stitch inside and outside the straight edges of these triangles. It looks cool even from the back side of the card front!
And, just like that cute cards were made!
Happy Sunday everyone, and Happy Mother’s day too 🙂
Krista
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